Introduction
Before his stint as an Intelligence Officer with MI5–and long before he joined Morgan Stanley–Simon Bound served as a clearance diving officer in the British Royal Navy, both in the Falklands War and the 1991 Gulf War. In fact, he’d dreamt of that precise naval position as a child: “I didn’t just want to join the Navy, I knew that I wanted to be a clearance diving officer,” he says. “I grew up next to the ocean and have a love of the water.” Not to mention an inclination to take on new and risky challenges.
While disposing of underwater mines sounds either like the stuff of a James Bond movie or a nightmare, what he took away from his time as a military officer had nothing to do with the job itself. “The Navy's a meritocracy. As they say, water is a great leveler,” he explains. “I had commanding officers who'd started off as 15-year-old sailors, people who hadn’t come from privileged backgrounds, who didn’t have what were considered the right qualifications, who had gone to very poor high schools. But that didn’t matter. And that's very powerful. So a meritocratic culture is incredibly important to me.”
Which could explain why Bound so appreciates Morgan Stanley, a firm that he says shares a similar philosophy. “Morgan Stanley is also a great meritocracy. You can do whatever you want to do here. Anything’s open to you, provided you show initiative and hard work and professionalism.” Bound considers his trajectory as proof. He’s held six different roles since joining the firm in 1999, and has been Global Director of Research since 2014. But he hasn’t left the water completely behind: Each year he competes in a two-mile open water swim in Greenwich, Conn. “I always try to do a bit better than last year.”
Describe your role at the firm.
I manage the Research Department around the world. It’s my job to define our strategy and to make sure that we execute on that strategy. Capital markets change all the time, so what we're focused on will change accordingly. One moment, we might focus on Europe, or it might be China, or credit markets—depending on what’s going on in the world. We have to be able to pivot and multitask. We cover approximately 3,500 stocks globally. On any given day, we could have a particularly interesting call on an American food and beverage manufacturer, a British multinational bank or a South Korean electronics conglomerate. Every day is different.
You’ve been at the firm since 1999. What has kept you here?
I always enjoyed taking on new challenges. In the Navy, you change jobs every two years; you’re ship to ship, so it broadens you, as far as skills and perspective go—and it means you never get bored. I’ve had a variety of different jobs at the firm, and that’s kept me fresh.
What does it take to be a successful member of your team?
You need to stay close to clients and know when to take a sensible risk. If an idea is a consensus idea, it’s likely to be less interesting and priced into markets, by definition. Our analysts need to think outside of the box and figure out where consensus lies, where consensus may be wrong, and where we may have an edge by taking a different view. We also encourage people to collaborate across geographies, asset classes and sectors, and to write about debates where we think we can add some real value. If clients have a question, we want them to think: I should really call Morgan Stanley on this.
How has technology changed your business?
Clients are investing heavily in quantitative analysis and data. And our strategy is informed by our clients' strategy. So we're investing in quant and data, too, to make sure that our analysts have the right tools at their disposal to stay on the cutting edge of the investment debate. We've had a data business called AlphaWise for 12 years. So we've always been incorporating big data into the research process, and we continue to invest in that.
How does Morgan Stanley’s research stand out?
I think we're best-in-class when it comes to collaborative research. When we're looking at very complex investment debates, like China capital flows, or protectionism, or supply-chain disruption, or the second Machine Age–any of those debates require analysts to work together collaboratively. There could be a dozen analysts working on a report, there could be 20 analysts working on a report. Other banks can't do that. When we work collaboratively on these complex issues, we are in a league of our own.
Are you involved in giving back?
Yes. My area of interest, which isn’t surprising given my background, is veterans’ isues. I am on the board of the Jericho Foundation, which is one of the more effective providers of accommodations in New York City for homeless people. And they've got a separate initiative devoted to veterans, which I’m involved in.
What do you find most fulfilling about your job?
Being able to engage with our analysts all over the world. One week I'll be in Europe, the next week I’ll be in Asia. And wherever I go, I can talk to the expert in a sector or a country or an economy or an asset class and say, “What do you think?” I can talk about any part of the investment debate with some of the very best people in the market.
