Circle of delegation

The subtle art of delegation, an essay on how big organisations work: You have a simple but important question. Luckily, you know the firm has set up a cross-divisional working group - with multifarious workstreams — hundreds strong — of lawyers, compliance professionals, operations staff, COOs and external management consultants to consider this, and related issues, in minute detail.

ROUND ONE

You chat Mary, whom you know is fully involved in the MiFID 2 inducements workstream, not expecting your query to occupy most of the following 48 hours.

You: Hi Mary. could I pick your brains today about fee rebates under MiFID 2?
Mary: Hi Frank, the best person for fees & charges Qs would be either Matthew (Regs Team) or Mark (Legal), since they've followed MiFID 2 for a lot longer. M
(Matthew is out of the office. Let’s try Mark.)

ROUND TWO

You: Mark - Hi - I'm in IB legal - Mary gave me your name. i gather you're an expert on MiFID 2 re fees and charges?
Mark: Costs and charges? That falls under the Investor Protection part of the program. That is run by Luke.
(Luke is out of the office.)
You: Great, thanks. Luke seems to be out of the office - does he have a deputy?
Mark: Joan is the business analyst on the costs and charges work-stream ... If she isn’t the right person, she'll point you in the right direction.

ROUND THREE

You: Joan! Hi! Mark tells me you're the business analyst on the costs and charges workstream for MiFID 2. I'm really interested in getting the buy-side view on fee sharing and rebates. Would you have a few minutes to discuss?
Joan: Can we do on Friday next week? Also, in advance of our call, can you give some more background on your question?
You: Actually I was hoping to speak to someone today. A 10 minute call, tops - perhaps with someone in your team? - should help contextualise the question and may indeed answer it.
Joan: Sure. Speak to Andrea in Hong Kong.

ROUND FOUR

You: Andrea! Hi! we are investigating the MiFID 2 implications re inducements and conflicts of interest. Joan tells me you're the subject matter expert on this. Would you have a moment to speak today?
Andrea: Hi Frank. In fact, I look after the costs and charges disclosures under MiFID 2. Anthony looks after inducements arising from payment of costs and charges. If you are referring to conflict of interest under inducements Anthony would look after that.

ROUND FIVE

You: Anthony! Hi! we are investigating the MiFID 2 implications re inducements and conflicts of interest as they relate to fee-sharing a arrangements. Andrea me that you're the subject matter expert on this! Would you have a moment to speak today?
Anthony: Hi. We have broken the MiFID 2 inducements workstream into two: non-monetary and monetary. I look after non-monetary. Monetary is Thomas.

ROUND SIX

You: Thomas! Hi! we are investigating the MiFID 2 implications re inducements and conflicts of interest as they relate to fee-sharing a arrangements. Anthony tells me that you're the subject matter expert on this! Would you have a moment to speak today?

Pause
Thomas: have you tried Mary?

Voiceover: MARY IS THE PERSON HE STARTED WITH.

See also

• Circle of escalation
• Inverted delegation