Managing through Networks in Investment Banking

Investment bankers have developed management practices that are appropriate for their role in facilitating the flow of assets between issuers and investors. Flexible and dynamic network organizational structures enable firms to process unique deals and to adapt to changing circumstances. Client-oriented measurement systems emphasize the importance of serving customers to build market share in this service business. Rewards, in the form of large bonuses based on an assessment of an individual's contribution to collective outcomes, are a strong incentive for the needed high level of cooperation. The challenge for firms growing larger, more complex, and more geographically dispersed is to sustain these management practices. Commercial banks entering this business must learn a very different way of managing.