Kelly Lewis MGMT 3101 21 Sept 2015

Rob Parsons at Morgan Stanley

1. What is your assessment of Rob Parson’s performance? Should he be promoted?

a. Rob Parsons is an incredible performer and contributes a substantial amount of effort and
dedication to the business. He is driven and has created an environment of success with
external customers and vendors. However, his teamwork and collaboration skills are not up
to par with the Morgan Stanley standards. Parsons increased the market share for his
division from only 2% before he came to about 12.2%, making Morgan Stanley a top 3
competitor. However, despite these irrefutable bounds made by Parsons, the Morgan
Stanley culture is more important to the company than individual achievement and success.
When employees work in a culture that they feel comfortable and appreciated in, in reduces
turnover and increases job satisfaction. It is true that the position held by Parsons has a
historic high rate of turnover due to the challenging environment of capital markets, which
speaks more to Parson’s success. He has undoubtedly mastered the qualifying factors of the
“Principal Role” that are listed in Appendix A. Parsons has clearly mastered the investment
banking techniques and commanded the respect of clients in order to create business
opportunities. Despite these aspects of Parson’s persona, subordinates and colleagues have
critiqued him about his ability to lead and work on a team. The role of managing director
calls for management responsibility and the ability to lead by example. If the Morgan
Stanley culture is about teamwork, collaboration, and mutual respect, Parsons does not
necessarily “lead by example.” Between colleague and downward rankings, Parsons
received average scores of 2.0 for both the “Evaluation, Development and Coaching” and
“Management of Diverse Workforce” sections. Similarly, he only received a 2.5 from
colleagues and a 3.0 downward average rank for his ability to lead and manage people.
Because of this, I do not think that Parsons should be promoted. I believe that he should
continue to work to gain internal respect and create productive working relationships with
people in the company before being promoted. The idea of a promotion should be revisited
upon the next 360-degree evaluation. This conclusion is based upon the Morgan Stanley
mission statement. The mission statement of a company determines what image they want
to brand to customers and employees and Morgan Stanley’s states, “We will distinguish
ourselves by creating an environment that fosters teamwork and innovation, by developing
and utilizing our employees’ abilities to the fullest, and by treating each other with dignity
and respect. (pg 1) Despite financial and market success, Rob Parsons struggles to fit into
the Morgan Stanley environment. His recent efforts to improve his relationships and
develop teamwork skills shows promise for him to become managing director in the future.
2. Look at Exhibit 3 (evaluation and development summary). Pretend that you are Rob’s boss and
complete the evaluation using data from the case. (Don’t worry about formatting issues—
just address each of the areas in the exhibit in your answer.)
a. Strengths
i. Commitment and Tirelessness: Rob is an incredibly dedicated worker who will not take
no for an answer. He strives tirelessly to ensure that Morgan Stanley is performing at its
best and works to create a positive image for the company. (Person A, B, H)
ii. Business Knowledge: Rob is known for his incredible knowledge of the market and the
fixed income business. He has strong commercial instincts and has continued to
increase the market share of Morgan Stanley to make the company a top competitor in
his division. (Person A, C, E, H)
 Kelly Lewis MGMT 3101 21 Sept 2015

iii. Client Management: Rob responds to client requests and is good with senior client
management (Person D). Similarly, he continues to build positive relationships with
clients and bring in more business. This is shown in his amicable personal and working
relationships with clients. Rob makes it difficult for clients to say no because of the
strength of their relationships and his ability to cross-sell and promote key products.
(Person H).
b. Development Areas
i. Internal Relationships: According to employee evaluations, despite his recent effort to
develop more relationships and be more inclusive, Rob needs to continue to improve
upon this aspect of his work. (Person I, E, B, A)
ii. Personal Style and Judgment: Rob occasionally reacts too quickly to situations and
emerging problems. Rushing to a decision too quickly reflects poorly towards clients
and coworkers. (Person A, E, F)
iii. Professional Demeanor: Rob is sometimes too casual in the work environment and
presentations. Could work more to manage his professional demeanor is certain
settings. (Person H, E, A)
c. Business Goals
i. Rob should continue to perform exceptionally in financial services and work to improve
his capacity to follow up with certain requests and challenges in order to advance his
internal and external brand. Similarly, Rob should work to increase business for
Morgan Stanley and create a sustainable customer base.
d. Professional Development goals
i. Rob should continue to work on his professional demeanor and networking skills in
order to improve his image among colleagues and subordinates. By doing so, more
coworkers will be appreciative and accepting of him in an internal leadership role.
e. Career Goals: Long-term career goal: “to be in a senior leadership role in a client capacity,
away from the headaches of pure day-to-day administrative duties.” This goal is definitely
achievable for Parsons as he continues to work on his development areas. Business
performance is undoubtedly a proven indicator of his ability to hold a senior leadership
role.
3. If you were Paul Nasr, how would you conduct the performance appraisal conversation? What
would your goals be? What issues would you raise and why?
a. If I were Paul Nasr, I would conduct the performance appraisal conversation by first
addressing his success in the market and business environment since his employment. I
would be clear that his work is invaluable to the business and has improved the Morgan
Stanley customer base substantially. I would attempt to make this conversation constructive
and try to align my vision for his career path with the Morgan Stanley mission statement.
Through this effort, I would try to be more aggressive than before in my attempt to express
how the effort to comply with company ideals is essential to his success. My ultimate goals
would be to express his consideration for the managing director role and to explain that
upon further developing his leadership and teamwork qualities, he would be first in line for
the job. The issues that I would raise are those of relationship management, teamwork
capabilities, and overall internal image. Despite expressing these issues, I would be sure to
address that coworkers have recognized his development and attempts to improve these
concerns. The horizontal coordination is the highest concern when it comes to Parson’s
ability to function within the clan culture of Morgan Stanley. This conversation would
Kelly Lewis MGMT 3101 21 Sept 2015

hopefully, ultimately lead to the full development of an internal image for Parsons that
would cause him to be the ideal candidate for managing director.