Leadership
Bullish on culture
How Bob Bowman builds around the core values of Merrill Lynch by grooming the next generation of leaders
By Erik Cassano
Smart Business Philadelphia | November 2008
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Everything you do as a leader means something to somebody.
It’s one of the favorite sayings of Bob Bowman. As the Philadelphia-based regional managing director of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., he is responsible for taking the big-picture initiatives that originate from Merrill Lynch’s corporate headquarters and driving them through all levels of the company in Pennsylvania.
When it comes to building and maintaining a company culture, that means he must take the principles of the corporate culture and make them personal for the company’s1,200 employees in the state. To do that, it takes good communication relayed to good employees.
“It’s all the little things that add up to big things,” Bowman says. “One of the mantras I have is that everything matters. Everything you do means something, be it in a good or a bad way. It’s like in golf, where every shot makes someone happy.”
As the head of the company, you can set the tone for culture from the top, but the momentum that sustains a culture will well up from the bottom of the company. Bowman says that for a culture to survive, it must be carried out by everyone in the organization. The only way to achieve that level of buy-in is to develop leaders who are capable of perpetuating the culture, and then engage them on their level and take an interest in what they do for the company on a daily basis.
“Do you think you can issue an edict to say ‘Have a good culture?’” Bowman says. “Probably not. In the end, it always gets down to the people you hire. We tend to hire people who are emotionally intelligent. We tend to hire people who are caring, people who would want to be a part of a team like this and perform well, who know there is more to life than just coming to work and doing your business.”
An open, collaborative company culture doesn’t just happen. It’s the product of a process, and as such, requires good project management. It’s something Bowman has practiced since becoming a leader at Merrill Lynch nearly 20 years ago and will continue to practice now that the company is part of Bank of America.
Here’s how he does it.
