One woman’s creative thinking is transforming Merrill Lynch — one client at a time.
By: Gwen McNamara
When Subha V. Barry took a look at her coworkers at the Plainsboro office of Merrill Lynch several years ago, she noticed something strange despite the area’s rapidly changing demographics, she was still the only non-white employee.
Inspired to make a change, she decided she could come up with a better way to improve diversity and created a program that made hiring a diverse staff a smart business decision, not just a human resources mandate.
"Everyone agrees that diversity is good and that with a diverse population we ‘do better’," said Ms. Barry, a Princeton resident who has been with Merrill Lynch for 15 years, first as a financial adviser and now as first vice president working out of the company’s Hopewell campus.
"But previously," she continued, "this was all left up to human resources, where repeated attempts to address diversity, by setting number mandates, etc., had been unsuccessful."
What was needed was a new driver for change, she said.
"We needed a way to make hiring a diverse candidate the right way to go for business reasons," she said. "A change in leadership provided me with the perfect opportunity, and I approached the head of Private Client business about my ideas for a new business unit."
The unit, Multicultural and Diversified Business Development, develops new client relationships to make Merrill Lynch the leading wealth-management firm among a wide range of diverse populations.
"By increasing our client base in a particular market, management would be more likely to hire a financial adviser from that market. It just makes good business sense," Ms. Barry said.
The Multicultural and Diversified Business Development unit officially launched in March 2002 with a focus on the Asian community.
With limited resources, the unit then made up of just three people had to start in familiar territory.
"I am South Indian and grew up in India; Jyoti Chopra, our head of business strategy, was from North India and grew up in England," Ms. Barry said. "We needed to start where we could get some quick results. With the Asian community we didn’t have to do as much research, we had it all in our heads."
After researching the market identifying things like geographies or professions to focus on the unit narrowed its target and began partnering with organizations in the community.
The unit then turned its attention to Merrill Lynch’s financial advisers.
"We started with a broad and all-inclusive effort," Ms. Barry said. "We went to every financial adviser and presented them with all our information and offered, if they were interested, to come and join us."
More than 300 financial advisers nationwide came on board and received training and education sessions on how to present themselves to the community and learn cultural nuances.
The unit, with its team of financial advisers and community partners, then created sponsorships and community events to attract new clients.
"The organizations that were our partners became the bridge to take the financial advisers to the heart of the community," Ms. Barry said. "By the end of the first year our return was in excess of 28 percent."
Now the unit, pretax, is seeing a return of about 32 percent and has expanded to include a number of other ethnic groups, including Hispanics and African Americans.
"We’re starting to look into the gay and lesbian community and are considering the Native American market as well," Ms. Barry said.
And the unit’s strategy is affecting the diversity of Merrill Lynch’s financial advisers.
"One of our biggest successes has been in the Hispanic community," said Ms. Barry. "We’ve hired well over 100 Hispanic financial advisers in the last 12 months that’s a 25-percent increase. Our managers are beginning to see the impact in the community and in generation of resume flow."
The unit’s work is even helping the company adapt globally.
"We’ve found that particularly our South Asian and Hispanic clients are not only members of the community here in the U.S., but are connected with others throughout the world," she said. "And the way a Pakistani or South Asian here likes to be treated is quite similar to their counterpart in other parts of the world.
"Merrill, as a global company, can use that information to then go after diverse communities in the United Kingdom, Middle East, Hong Kong, etc.," she continued.
For the future, the unit’s goals include capturing 50 percent of the market share in whichever diverse community it’s focusing on and getting a fair share of clients and new hires from the community.
As a married mother of two, Ms. Barry says while she’s enjoyed success at Merrill Lynch it’s not been without its challenges.
"For most women the biggest challenge is balancing work and home," she said. "And when you have children you have to be prepared that there will always be something in your life out of equilibrium. Something has to give.
"I’m a three-time cancer survivor and have had to battle Hodgkin’s disease. I attribute this, in part, to a lack of balance or not taking enough time for myself," she continued. "If all your attention is focused elsewhere, your body won’t cooperate. You need to schedule time for you whether it’s exercise, a little break or a getaway with your girlfriends."
In addition, she’s happy to have witnessed a shift in the way the company handles its diverse population of employees particularly women.
At the end of April, an arbitration panel awarded $2.2 million to a former female broker who alleged Merrill Lynch engaged in systemic discrimination against women. The decision stems from a class-action suit filed against the company in 1997. Thirty-nine other cases from the suit remain to be resolved. Merrill Lynch has already paid more than $100 million in settlements with hundreds of other women who joined the class-action case.
"The leadership is now sending a clear message that Merrill, as a firm, will not tolerate sexual harassment or any other discrimination," Ms. Barry said. "I’m positive (the women’s issues in the class-action suit) are valid and while I support their actions many of the women were my colleagues and friends I chose not to join the suit.
"Today discrimination is not systemic, pervasive or prevalent," she continued. "If it was, I wouldn’t be here. I know that if things didn’t change a lot more of us would have gotten up and gone."
Ms. Barry is hopeful by increasing diversity through programs like hers, Merrill will be better equipped to handle the future.
"In the future, ‘white’ will no longer be the majority," she said. "In the next generations, differences will be moot. Problems of course will not completely go away, but you have to adapt and survive. The companies that can adapt to better serve their new customers will succeed."