Rob Parson at Morgan Stanley

Capital Market Services

The Capital Market Services (CMS) division at Morgan Stanley was created as part of an effort to make the firm more responsive to client needs. It was an explicitly interdisciplinary entity designed to serve as a link between the Investment Banking Division (IBD) and the sales and trading arms of the firm, Equity and Fixed Income. The organizational structure was intended to provide clients with more focused attention and service. It also was a mechanism that allowed cross divisional collaboration and avoided feuds over how to allocate fees across different sub-units.

Professionals in Capital Markets Services were organized into market coverage areas, typically industries. They were expected to work with corporate finance professionals, who were viewed as the “stewards” of client relationships. They were also expected to generate business from organizations in their sector who did not necessarily have an existing relationship with Morgan Stanley. Market coverage professionals were described as “entrepreneurs”—like sales people, but responsible and accountable for their own client base. Gary Stuart, a senior market coverage professional, described what it took to excel:

In order to be an excellent producer you have to really understand the business in the industry you cover. That means knowing who the people are, who to talk to, developing relationships. In addition, you need to be extremely good at understanding the markets and have good market judgment. That takes more than study of the markets. It takes intuitive sense and feel, deal experience, and a certain type of person and way of thinking. You need to truly understand what your client’s needs are. You need to have good client relationships so they’ll tell you what their real concerns and needs are. But you also need to understand the business they’re in and what makes sense for their business so that you can give good advice. You then need to work with product specialists...