Anu Aiyengar, Global Head of Advisory and M&A at
Transcription:
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Chana Schoenberger (00:09):
Hi, I'm Chana Schoenberger. I'm the editor-in-chief of American Banker, and I have with me here today Anu Aiyengar, who is the global head of Advisory and m&A at JP Morgan. Welcome. Congratulations.
Anu Aiyengar (00:21):
Thank you.
Chana Schoenberger (00:22):
I'm delighted to be here. So just to kick this off, what is the biggest challenge you're facing in your role today and how are you handling it?
Anu Aiyengar (00:32):
The biggest challenge right now is the relentless uncertainty and volatility in the markets and helping our clients navigate that because even in one hour what you read could be stale and you could have some new information that is germane and you need to process that and think about what do you do about that. So first you need to stay on top of what is happening, and second, you need to understand, interpret, and advise our clients on how to navigate it.
Chana Schoenberger (01:06):
So do you have an example of a situation that changed very quickly?
Anu Aiyengar (01:11):
So we were working with 3G on the Sketchers deal when the tariffs announcement came out. And so trying to analyze that and look at the implications of that and figuring out how do you structure the deal. So that was an interesting experience to go through and that's just one example. That's an announced deal. There are very many such ones that we are in the middle of.
Chana Schoenberger (01:38):
Wow. Okay. So I think of investment bankers working 120 hours a week, what is a typical week like for you?
Anu Aiyengar (01:46):
Yeah, I think that is maybe stories from the past in terms of the number of hours as particularly for our juniors, we put in a lot of initiatives and things like that and checks and balances and even the way you dip things. So I've now been doing this for 25 years and how I did something when I started is very different from how you do it today. Now the resources that you have, and especially we've been a big adopter of ai, so there is a lot that you can get done that we would manually do, reading documents, tab them, highlighting them, and now you have AI summarize it. And so the work has shifted from collecting information and summarizing it to looking at the summarized information and collecting the insights from that and advising your client, which is much more fun, I'd say
Chana Schoenberger (02:48):
Sounds like a much better use of your analyst years.
Anu Aiyengar (02:51):
Yes, I think it makes it interesting and I think we have a lot to thank technology to make that possible. And as you grow senior, I think again, because today I have an iPad and an iPhone, and no matter where I am, I can be operational and I can switch on and off. And sometimes working from beautiful look else, it can also be fun. You don't necessarily have to be in the office to get your work done, but the office part of it is really just seeing everybody else that you work with and almost having kind of like a touching base. Because we travel so much as bankers, often I'm only in the office one day or two days a week at most, and that's the day I see the team and that's very energizing.
Chana Schoenberger (03:45):
So a challenge that all of Wall Street is facing right now is how to get a younger generation to come and work at banks. How do you sell them on this being a career that's filled with purpose?
Anu Aiyengar (04:00):
So firstly, we haven't had the same challenge in the sense that the number of applicants that we have for any open position is multiples and multiples and multiples of the open positions that we have. And the opportunity I think that a young person has in joining this profession is phenomenal, which is why I think we do have the applicant pool that we have. But when you think about if you're coming out of college and you're thinking, where do I start my career? I often joke and say, this is a continuation of your education except we are paying you for it as well. And it's as a learning ground and what you get to do when you're 22 or 23. That opportunity set I think is really differentiated and bigger scale. When I try to describe what it is that we do in our group and practice, we help companies and their C-suites dreams come true. So if a company is dreaming about growing bigger and wants to make other acquisitions, then we help them do that. If the company is about, I have grown to a place where I want to find the right next home for this company, then we help the company do that. And that's an enormous responsibility, a privilege, and working on something that you work on it today and that is tomorrow's news. That's a high.
Chana Schoenberger (05:36):
That's great. Okay. So what have you learned about leadership now that you're a senior executive that nobody told you when you were junior?
Anu Aiyengar (05:44):
I think the fine line that you have to walk, being an authentic leader and being aware that minute changes in your expressions are being watched and interpreted by lots of people. And so you want to strike that balance, right? Because you may just be distracted because you're thinking of something, whereas the person that you just crossed may say, oh, but why didn't she say hello to me? Why didn't she smile at me? And so just being very conscious and aware, but yet being authentic, not look at everybody and give them a fake smile or ask, how are you without meaning it? I don't like that at all. But I think striking the balance between kind of being your authentic, true self as well as being aware that what you do impacts another person and it may affect their day, their minutes, their morning, whatever it is, being aware of that and being sensitive to that.
Chana Schoenberger (06:47):
Great. Great. Okay. So when you look at the issues facing your sector right now, how banks are managing them, what are you thinking about
Anu Aiyengar (06:57):
Managing a global workforce and make it feel like a cohesive team? And how is it that through? So one, you travel a lot and I travel an enormous amount to make sure that I'm actually touching not only the clients, but also the people who work in the team in every part of the world. But in addition to that, that you can maybe do once a year, twice a year, how do you make the whole team feel like one unit and how do you bring energy into a two dimensional surface of a zoom call or a teams call? So I think that's a challenge. The people who are extroverted will always reach out and find you, but as a manager you have to reach out to the introverts who may say, I only need to speak to her when there is a problem. Whereas you want to have constant connectivity with your teams and make it normal that even if they are not physically seeing you because you're not in that office because it's a global workforce, that it's still feels like a walkabout. So how do you create that environment? How do you create spaces? How do you create calls? And how do you communicate at a pace and frequency that everyone feels like you're marching in the same direction?
Chana Schoenberger (08:20):
That's difficult. Okay. What keeps you up at night other than being on a plane?
Anu Aiyengar (08:26):
Yeah, I sleep a lot on planes. So usually so far, and I should knock on wood somewhere, is I sleep on demand. I think of sleep as a strategic asset. And so whenever you get time, you sleep. And so far that's served me well to be able to travel across time zones and not have jet lag. We'll see how long I can keep it up.
Chana Schoenberger (08:53):
So what do you worry about when you're awake then?
Anu Aiyengar (08:58):
I think it's all the things that we talked about is staying on top of information, staying connected to your clients, staying connected to the people, being able to interpret the information in a way calm way, because sometimes everything that is happening in the market can put people in a tizzy. And so how do you have the emotional resilience to absorb, understand, but not overreact?
Chana Schoenberger (09:28):
Great. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for coming in, and congratulations again.
Anu Aiyengar (09:32):
Thank you very much. My pleasure.
