Pros
- Many smart, knowledgeable, professionals - A fairly uniform world-wide brand - Broad spectrum of resources - A good place for young people to gain experience and responsibility - Decent wages and benefits for the middle rank-and-file - Very good compensation plans for senior and executive management - The Risk Management division (multi-nationals) traditionally had low turnover and excellent technical people - Extended benefits to Domestic Partners
Cons
- Very bloated, centralized management structure in New York HQ - Executive management's response to Spitzer's legal action in 2004 took 3 tumultuous years to stabilize and when the smoke cleared, a flattish, flexible decentralized organization had morphed into a rigid, authoritarian and increasingly out-of-step and out-of-touch management team. - Constant changing of technology platforms - most very, very bad - clunky and cumbersome. - 10s of millions of dollars spent on bespoke technology platforms - abandoned after a year or 2 - which really looks bad when you cyclically lay off hundreds of skilled workers. - Too many Managing Directors shuffling papers - Moving toward cheap, disposable workers - Middle Market business model can't compete with local and Regional - No longer stand out as knowledge leaders