Stan O’Neil and his management team ruined a legacy of leadership that went on from one generation to the next for over 70 years. Win Smith was proud of the legacy. The people at Merrill in that era believed in transferring the legacy. Many thousands of employees passed thru Merrill Lynch and if any of them were worth their weight, they can’t say they did not learn a lot about the business. The young kids built a foundation that would carry them thru to management positions at Merrill Lynch and many other firms in the industry. In fact the competition at one time sought out Merrill Lynch employees knowing that their business foundations were strong, knowing that they invested skills and training in employees.

I however, was not as excited about John Thain’s efforts in trying to save Merrill Lynch. I thought there were many others that could have been brought in to save the firm. Numerous former Merrill Lynch Executive Officers who had vested interest to succeed. Looking back allowing Stan O’Neil to walk away with $167,000 million was next to criminal. Most knew in February 01, that Stan was interested in one thing, that was when Stan O’Neil had sold about 250,000 shares of Merrill at $72.50. We were making a guy CEO who was selling off his own shares in the firm. Just so many more people could have been selected to succeed Dave Komanski. We had Herb Allison, Jeffery Peek, Win Smith people who cared about Merrill Lynch. Jerome Kenny was also their, but the Board of Directors never really forgave him over the 1987 Mortgage Back Securities incident, but the guy cared about the legacy.

John Steffens, Edward Goldberg and Howard Shallcross, built the Merrill Lynch Operations of the 80’s and 90’s bringing Merrill Lynch to the Promise land. Yes it’s after the Win Smith era, that dark clouds spread over Merrill’s horizon and the forefathers of Merrill Lynch could be herd churning in their graves. How a firm of over 70 years old could vanish in just seven short years?

Good luck to the new era of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. Looking forward management scholars will write about Merrill’s historical past for generations to come. Some will ask how? and some will ask why? My thought is it’s all about good management and people and keeping the mix in tact. We all know the outcome of greed and failure, it takes no prisoners and it maintains no vested interest.

I started in the biz 17 years ago and one of the firms I interviewed with was ML. Without looking at my resume, and before we really even finished the interview, the branch manager offered me a job.

I’ll admit I’m good looking, charismatic, and pretty much the smartest guy in the room, but it still took even me by surprise.

So I point blank asked him: WTF??!

He chuckled and gave me his best aw shucks: “Son I’ll be honest with you… Merrill Lynch looks at it like throwing shit up against the wall… you know… to see if it sticks. We’re gonna hire somewheres between 30 and 60 people in the next few months. Most of ‘em won’t make it. The ones that do will get all the other’s accounts. We’ve been doing this for quite a while and it works pretty good.”

I was sent off to lunch with one of the senior brokers. He spent the whole time telling me ML was the best firm in the world, and so forth. When I confronted him with the super high turnover among rookies, and told him about my conversation with the branch manager, he winced, thought about it for a few moments, sized up the situation, and told me point blank: “The truth is, I’m stuck here. Run away.”

I went elsewhere; two buddies joined Merrill. One made it 90 days, the other made it 3 years. The one that made it 3 years hit all his bogies, except his Assets Under Management were low by a rounding error. On a Friday the manager told him he was doing a great job; on Monday he was called into his office and had to cough up his key, then got escorted outta the office.

“Sorry, kid, you didn’t hit your bogies.”

Here’s the crazy part: the guy that made it 3 years was real quality. My firm, and several others, were interested in giving him a fresh start. But he wouldn’t even consider it because they weren’t *Merrill Lynch*.

It took him a while to realize he’d been screwed, and brainwashed to boot.

I think Mr. Smith thinks it’s a family because the firm was started by his family.

What a whimpering loser!

with this: “I stand here today and say shame to both the current as well as the former Directors who allowed this former CEO to wreak havoc on this great company.

Shame on them for allowing this former CEO to consciously and openly disparage Mother Merrill, throw our founding principles down a flight of stairs and tear out the soul of the firm.”

You lay the Failure of your beloved Institution at the feet of these, above, people, yet, care not to name their Face?

How, really, can that be?