RW Baird chiefs on the respectful way they do business and their plans to expand in the City
Think banking is all about “sharp elbows,” gruelling hours, and job-hopping ‘til you reach the top? Zealous midwesterners Paul Purcell and Steve Booth, who run wealth-management-cum-investment-bank outfit RW Baird, say that they offer a more respectful way of doing business.
Their bank has long-term partners, a “no asshole policy”, and has ended deal-related incentives for the investment desk to foster teamwork instead of internal competition.
Chief executive and chairman, Paul Purcell, who sports a Hermes tie and a Mickey Mouse watch, believes Baird shows that a “financial services firm can be a great place to work – because most are not”.
“You can’t kill your people,” he said, which is why the bank protects junior employees with a 9pm finish on Friday evenings and no emails on a Saturday.
President and chief operating officer Steve Booth insists that being the nice guys doesn’t means settling for less. “Up until 2007, our value proposition would have deemed to be cute or trite,” he says. But Baird weathered the recession without firing anyone or making a loss.
Since 2007, Purcell says “the industry is down, call it three per cent in head count – we’re up almost 37 per cent. That’s why we’ve outperformed the industry so dramatically since then because of all talent we’ve brought in.”
Purcell says they have a “long-term” pitch. “We don’t want you to come if you’re not going to finish your career here. [We] don’t hire those people who are in a hurry. No corner-cutters. It is ‘we and us,’ not ‘I and me.’
“And that appeals to a very distinct percentage of people in the industry and that’s a small percentage,” he admits.
Some slip through the net, of course, despite that “no asshole” policy. Last year, two employees were fired without a fuss after being accused of embezzling $1.3m (£863,000) from the firm.
Nonetheless, Milwaukee-based RW Baird has quietly been growing its operations around the world, evangelical about its employee-owned model. The pair agree the 900-odd people they’ve hired since 2007 were attracted by the freedom of owning your own company without many of the conflicts associated with pleasing shareholders on a quarterly basis.
Now they’re expanding their operations in London, drawn by the European recovery, and discount asset prices, which they believe haven’t yet caught up with the US.
RW Baird has a 100-strong team in Europe, with around 85 based in London, and are still looking for more.
The pair are decidedly bullish about the power of the markets here. “The UK’s got some of the best growth in the world right now, I mean two-2.5 per cent growth – 15 years ago you’d laugh at that but right now, that’s very attractive,” said Purcell.
“In Germany there’s been a tonne of activity. Believe it or not, Spain and Italy are going to come back some day, they’re getting better and we need that reach there because there’s a lot going on. Without question, Europe is our biggest opportunity. It’s the second-largest M&A market so you better pay attention to it.”
Purcell is less convinced by China, despite acknowledging its importance as the world’s second-largest economy and a driver of growth. “Is it 6.5 per cent growth or two per cent? Because they don’t tell you the truth,” he laments.
As big banks like Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and Barclays downsize their investment-banking operations, Baird is in prime position to grow into the space they leave, no pushing or shoving needed.