Final- Project 5

Running Head: Fidelity Investments Employee Interrelations 1

Fidelity Investments Employee Interrelations

Joseph C. Gannon

The Pennsylvania State University

Fidelity Investments Employee Interrelations 2

Abstract

Investment is a subcategory of business, and classified as a subculture. Business is

defined as “the practice of making one’s living by engaging in commerce” (Google, 2016). In

correlation, in order to engage in commerce, one must have investment funds. When one engages

in commerce, it is typically because one wants to make more money (profit), and the only way to

do this is to invest! Growing up my whole life I was taught to invest no matter what the terms

were. When I was five, my parents gave me a color-coated investment "bank." The colors were

red, yellow, and green. Red was for long term investment. Yellow, for saving for things that cost

a moderate amount of money. Green for short-term spending, like going to the movies or buying

a candy bar. With this investment heritage embedded into my lifestyle, there could not have been

a greater opportunity to further investigate the investment subculture of business. Considering

the fact of I am studying economics and how my dad works for an investment company, Fidelity.

So what exactly is investment? After thorough investigation, I discovered that the investment

subculture contains dominant growth aspects within the business industry: loyalty, management,

and efficiency. Without these elements, there would be no investment.

Keywords: investment, fiduciary, asset, duty, risk, portfolio, financial services, subculture,

mutual funds, efficiency


Discovering The Field-Site

To get a better idea of this investment subculture I began by asking my father if I could

conduct a study on the company he works for. He was more than compliant with the matter. It all

began by establishing exactly where I was going to be conducting this research. Since my father

works mostly in Rhode Island, I established this as my baseline for my fieldwork.

For my first time, I was on my way up to Fidelity's headquarters. It was a bright, clear

sunny day, I began to look over my presumptions and questions before arriving to the field site in

Rhode Island. About twenty minutes later my father and I arrived to Fidelity’s headquarters.

Getting out of the car, I stretched my legs after sitting for two hours in the car, looked up and

saw a bright blue, beautiful sky with absolutely no clouds. Immediately after gazing, my head

came back down, and in front of me I regained a new incredible fixture of site. This site was my

dad’s work office; my whole life I grew up loving architecture, and it still seems to never get old,

no matter what. The building had a huge glass overhang that I could look right up through. The

whole entire front side was made out glass, giving it a very appealing look. There were gorgeous

walkways with many spectacular vibrant plants greeting whom ever had headed for the main

entrance.

While we continued to walk towards the entrance, I said to my dad, “This place is

definitely a lot more peaceful to come to work in as opposed to your old office in New York.”

He smiled and laughed and said, “Joe, you have no idea.” We got inside and there were a couple

security guards at a huge front desk. We walked up to them, and my dad told them that I was

going to be visiting for the day, and would need a visitor's pass. Turning out to be not a problem

whatsoever, we made our way to my dad's office. On our way, I was noticing a heavy influence

of natural lighting with complimentary large spacing. When we got to his office, my dad told me


he had to get his stuff situated and then we would go look for the person whom he arranged a

meeting with, Taylor. Once all settled in, we went to go look for Taylor, while exploring more

within the cultural landscape. I felt that the simplicity of the layout was very elegant, feeling very

therapeutic in a sense. A company like Fidelity makes it possible for one to increase one’s

wealth, so it would only make sense to provide a therapeutic-like feel to the atmosphere in order

for their employees to represent their customers as best as possible.

The reason why I had arranged a meeting with Taylor was to get a better idea of what

Fidelity was all about with regard to investment. Taylor was one of the portfolio managers at

Fidelity, and had a good relationship with my dad and agreed to take a little bit of time out of his

schedule to meet with me. However, since my dad likes to get to work early, Taylor was not yet

in so I had to wait around for a little bit in my dad's office. Meanwhile, my dad went to another

room to make a phone call. While he was gone, I began to develop some more thoughts on the

conversation I would be having with Taylor.

While in the middle of reflecting, Taylor knocked on the framework of the door and

asked, "Are you Tom’s son?" I responded, “Yes, and you must be Taylor?” Taylor responded,

“Correct. It is a pleasure to meet you!” I could tell he was very delighted to see me, after the very

jubilant, energetic greeting. Taylor was dressed in business casual clothes just like my dad,

however he had a tie on instead of none at all. Taylor asked me very kindly to follow him to his

office so we can talk about some of the questions I wanted to discuss with him.

When we got to his office space, he said, "Please sit down in either chair here in front of

my desk and we can get started whenever you are ready." Jumping right into the meat of the

bone, the first question I asked him: “Does the portfolio manager do all the required research

independently or are their certain guidelines/criteria that needs to be met?” “Great question,” he


said, “Actually at Fidelity we have what we call a AART, Asset Allocation Research Team, that

is subject to oversight of fundamental, quantitative, and economic research, which is then used

for our portfolio managers, like myself, as insight for asset allocation recommendations for a

given portfolio.” I was quite impressed with the response that he gave me; it demonstrated that

he was well informed as well as a quick thinker.

Assessing Fidelity and the Everyday Employee

Bukowitz the managing director of RGsquad, a strategy and innovation consulting firm,

explains that Fidelity Investments are one of the largest financial service groups in the world.

They are an American multinational, multi-division financial services corporation, while at the

same time, they are a leader within the investment industry. In fact, Fidelity is the fourth largest

mutual funds and financial services group in the world. They are subject to 25 million individual

investors, with a staggering 5.1 trillion dollars in customer assets and 5.1 trillion dollars in assets.

This made it so much clearer as in why an employee, such as Taylor, was so elaborate with his

response: because Fidelity only wants the best, to be one of the best at what they do, investing.

Keeping in mind that Taylor was just a portfolio manager, I felt the next best question to

ask, “What are your investment decision responses based around?” In response he said,

“Investment decisions at Fidelity are based around the individual's own goals, the tolerance for

risk, and the current time period.” I asked if he could elaborate a little more regarding current

time period and tolerance for risk. He began talking about how things can get a little tricky

because of economics and its unpredictability. Being an economics major, I completely

understood what he was getting at. For example, in economics almost everything regarding the

flow of money is inter-related. That being said, one slight downturn, like a natural catastrophe,

could seriously disrupt certain production of food thereby, resulting in higher prices and less


investment. In order for me to get a better grasp of his response, he pulled out a chart in order to

captivate the essence of what he was saying; even though I thought I had an idea, I went ahead

and followed along. I was completely off the mark. He began illustrating certain aspects and

criteria that I did not have while referencing the chart (See Appendix A). I found out that Fidelity

makes an assessment based on consumer's desires to determine the most profitable portfolio with

respect to cycle phases, inflationary measures, etc.

Upon prior research I knew that Fidelity had a vast amount of options for the customer to

be able to add to their portfolio: stocks, mutual funds, bonds, fixed income, CD’s, ETF’s,

options, sector investing, retirement & IRAs 529 college savings, life insurance, long term care.

Overwhelmed with all these possible portfolio options, I thought I would try and centralize a

focus regarding Fidelity’s strengths. I asked Taylor; “with all these options, what would you say

is your strongest sector that you provide for the customer?” Instantly, he responded, “Hands

down mutual funds.” Running with this, I returned with a question: “What exactly are mutual

funds and why would you say hands down?” Taylor started by saying that mutual funds are

diversified investment programs funded by shareholders that are professionally managed, and

hands down because it is what most of their customers come to them for. Not to mention, he did

state that Fidelity is rated the number one overall broker according to Barron’s, Investor's

Business Daily, and stockbrokers.com. After hearing this, I thought back to the article written by

Bukowitz, which emphasized Fidelity's business rankings, and thought that it would be a great

place to stop and endnote. I wanted to take some of my own time to investigate for myself, to see

really, how much all of this information Taylor gave me proves to be accurate. By this time

about a couple hours had past and was going on 1 P.M, about lunch time. I told Taylor, "so that

basically concludes all of the questions I was wanting to ask you, I really appreciate your


elaborate feedback and responses." "Joe! No problem at all, it was my pleasure, I'm glad I could

help you with your work," he responded. Right after, he told me that he would bring me back to

my father's office so he could finish up some more work. When I got back to my dad's office, he

was there sitting at his desk on his phone, and what appeared to look like that he was doing e-

mails. "Hey dad! Were all set, Taylor was more than a huge help!" "Spectacular, thank you

Taylor for taking the time out of your day to help my son out, really means a lot! I know how

much work you typically have going on." "Tom, seriously no problem at all! I love being able to

help! I'll see you tomorrow!" My dad nodded and told me that we were able to head home

because it was a light day for him. Shocked by this, thinking that I still had about another 4 hours

to go, I complied and followed his lead. On our way out, I asked him, "So when do you think I'll

have another chance to come back up here?" "Friday. I get to work home tomorrow and

Thursday, and we'll come back up Friday, but I can't promise you any interviews." I responded,

"That's okay, I will just explore a little bit around the building and maybe use one of your unused

conference rooms, if that's okay?" My dad ended with, "Yea, that will work out perfect."

Investment Research: Round Two

Finally, Friday arrived and it was yet another beautiful day. Once we got to my dad's

office, he found me an an unused conference room so I could do some research on Fidelity’s

website. I started by looking up mutual funds on their website. I found that mutual funds are

defined by Fidelity as “a mutual fund is an investment that pools together multiple stocks, bonds,

and other securities to perform as one investment. Regardless of your investment goal, mutual

funds have the potential to play an important role in every portfolio.” I was extremely impressed

with a couple of things regarding this search: (1) how fast I was able to attain this information

and (2) how in depth the explanation was. I was now starting to truly see why this company was


so highly recognized and may even start looking for a job with them after I graduate. After a

little bit of recertifying the information Taylor gave me, I found out that it was all 100%

accurate.

These facts were incredibly surprising to me. I had no idea such a company could have so

much worth. It made me start to tangent in thinking: why would we not have a company like this

provide insight for our government in order to cut down our national debt? Why wouldn't

investment companies be the main line source for improving cost deductions all around? Getting

back to the matter at hand, investment and its complexity as an entity, I began to research some

articles that could give me a better sense as of what the investment subculture was really all

about. I came across the article: “Firm Risk, Investment, and Employment Growth." It was easy

to see that investment is not simple at all. Investment is subject to a variety of ways of gaining

profit, with the more profit one wants to make, the more complicated it gets for profit to be

made. This is due to risk and return, a fundamental concept of investment. Risk is the probability

of losing some or all of an original investment, and anyone who invests does not want either of

these outcomes to hold true. Investment companies like Fidelity provide a number of resources

in order to ensure the investor a profitable return, that resource would be a fiduciary. According

to Rosenburg (2004), a fiduciary is the person who manages one's assets in order to return some

level of desirable return. Corporations like Fidelity make investment possible through their levels

of employment. Investment is occurring because of the fiduciary level of employment. This level

of employment is the level that manages the investor’s assets. Fiduciaries act as the bulwark of

profit. All of these concepts are incredibly important towards financial growth. Investment does

not simply just revolve around capital investment (Rosenburg, 2004).


I then began investigating some other things on Fidelity’s website that I had a hard time

understanding while talking to Taylor. The first being Certificates of Deposit; I discovered that

they are fixed income investments that usually pay at the rate of interest over a fixed period of

time. The website did not only just publish a definition, but they also provided reasons as to why

CD’s should be considered for one’s portfolio, FDIC insurance, flexibility, and liquidity. The list

goes on and on for why one should invest using Certificates of Deposit. I was left astonished

with the amount of resources Fidelity provided in order to be able to teach the consumer about

their resources. In all seriousness, I could take a week out of my schedule and learn about all the

investment opportunities solely using Fidelity’s resources and become an investment guru.

However, I would have to dedicate a lot more time in order to become as smart as some of the

fiduciaries here at Fidelity. Not really entirely understanding the role of fiduciary, I started to

conduct more research.

The owner comes to the fiduciary looking for loyalty, assurance and more money from

the management of his or her assets. In the article written by Lydenberg (2016), the

responsibilities of the fiduciary are very important in this process of management and are written

by law. There are three corporate fiduciary duties. The first duty states that “The Duty of Care”

requires officers as well as directors must use a sensitive mindset while also being diligent when

making decisions on the shareholders and corporations behalf (Lydenberg, 2016). In order for

fiduciaries to meet “The Duty of Care,” they must abide by three things: act in good faith, act

with reasonability and as if they were in a similar position, and act with reasonable belief that

their decision is in the best interest of the corporation. The second is “The Duty of Loyalty.” This

duty enforces the fiduciary to act for the benefit/advantage of the beneficiary by not deciding

anything that would put the beneficiary in a disadvantaged situation solely because of his own


self-interest/benefit (Lydenberg, 2016). The last duty is “Duty of Good Faith,”which is when

fiduciaries act with a conscious regard for their responsibilities. This means a fiduciary must not

act in a fraudulent or deceitful manner to the detriment of the beneficiary. Overall, all of these

duties are defined by the defining elements of loyalty. Without it there would be no economic

growth within the company.

After conducting third-party research, I wanted to see further, how much Fidelity really

provides for their customer in terms of being able to learn their investment plans. I came across a

wide range of learning tools that really opened my eyes. The learning center is a location on

Fidelity’s website that provides some of the best research and defining matters I have ever come

across. Fidelity provides informational learning through forms of articles, courses, webinars,

infographic, and videos at different levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I seriously wish

I had known about all of this sooner because my whole life I grew up loving to watch stock and

investment channels on TV with a lot of the time not really knowing what was being said. I

guess this was the embedment of my "investing heritage" when I was kid.

To broaden my horizon amongst all these tools and their allowable proficiencies within

the investment culture, I thought to myself, "Even if I had all the definitions in the world, I still

would not be able to conduct proper investment plans, so what exactly would allow me to

understand how to make money?" After some time of thinking I came across the term investment

efficiency. I derived the term from correlating my thoughts of my economics classes in the past

with investment terms I had just discovered.

According to Rosemary Peavler’s (2016) article,“What are Profitable Ratios,” investment

efficiency is calculated in a number of equivalent ways pertaining to different aspects. Those

aspects are: profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, asset/efficiency management ratios, and


debt/financial leverage ratios. They are segregated into two categories: returns and margin. When

noting ratio equivalency, it is important to note that all ratios are all eligible as an area of

measure for certain level of efficiency. This is how investors (customers) & fiduciaries (Taylor)

manage their assets, basing assessments, deductions, and facts, off of efficiency measures:

Returns➢ Return on Assets [ROA % ] = [ (Net Income) + (After tax Interest Expense) ] /

[(Average Total Assets)]○ Generally stated as percentage: used to determine the level of efficiency○ Incredibly important○ Assets profitability rate

➢ Return on Equity [ROE] = (Net Income) / (Average Shareholders' Equity)○ Generates the company's returns on an shareholder’s investment; another level of

efficiency.○ *The most important statistic for investors* = how much money is made after a

shareholder puts money in towards the company.➢ Cash Return on Assets [Cash ROA] = (Cash Flow From Operations / CFO / Average

Total Assets)○ For every one more asset dollar defines an increase in Cash ROA○ Used for more advanced profitability analysis○ For accrual1 basis

All of these calculations/evaluations are critical for deriving profitable investments.

Peavler states that extensional analysis can be used in the form of models to define a company’s

overall efficiency. This measurement area (extensional models) is used by all investment

company’s. If one were to want to define a company’s overall efficiency specifying certain

aspects, one example that could be used is the DuPont Model. This model depicts the key parts

of the Return on Assets (ROA) and the Return on Equity(ROE) and where the return’s come

from. The DuPont Model is very useful for determining financial adjustments (Peavler,

2016).Not using these values of evaluation will only result in undesirable outcomes. Undesirable

outcomes are not good for business growth, certainly Fidelity is not about undesirable outcomes.

Therefore, efficiency measures are important and must be implemented by Fidelity in times of

1 Accrual of something is, in finance, the adding together of interest or different investments over a period of time. It holds specific meanings in accounting, where it can refer to accounts on a balance sheet that represent liabilities and non-cash-based assets used in accrual-based accounting.


investing, which they most certainly do; because of remembering the discussion with and the

importance of the economics chart. This is where I ended my investigation and thought I should

head back to my dad's office since it was now going on 4 P.M.

Fidelity’s idiosyncratic employment levels

I was completely exhausted from the continuous weeks work of studying. I finally asked

my dad in the car, "Since there is really is not too much more that I can see at your office in

Rhode Island, do you think I could possibly go with you on one of your business trips to North

Carolina?" He answered, "Let me check with my boss, and I'll let you know in a couple days." I

was totally okay with this. I got my stuff and headed to my room to finalize my thoughts on what

I would do if my dad were to tell me yes.

I was contemplating who to interview for the process of understanding how employment

at Fidelity Investments functions, and thought what better person than someone who is

commonly overlooked with regard to businesses operations. I knew that if I were to interview

one of the many fiduciaries at Fidelity that I would only acquire a common answer. After all, the

general framework for almost every fiduciary is going to be most comparable to Taylor. Previous

research demonstrated regulations and duties are written in law. So it was hard to say. Should I

just interview a handful of fiduciaries, and most likely gain the same feedback over and over

again or interview someone who has little recognition? About after five more minutes of

thinking, I got the thought of the construction sector, what better thought than construction.

Investment companies want to save money, and when one wants to save money, one wants to

produce the least costly building structure, so everything is going to be done as cheaply as

possible.


Thinking a little bit deeper, I derived the real estate sector. An individual in the upper-

level position within the real estate side would be able to demonstrate the investment

employment functions at Fidelity because of his/her observations and first-hand knowledge. Real

estate agents make sure that they provide the best cost structure essentially establishing the

business environment. Thankfully, I had a great opportunity to meet one of the VP's of real estate

within the company, with the help of my father who coordinated a meeting. Real estate was my

dad's specialty as well. He had incredible insight regarding the employment within real estate

because of multicultural experiences as businessman. When he worked for American Express as

a vice president of real estate, he oversaw about 25 worldwide teams regarding his buildings.

Interestingly enough, this was actually the reason why American Express hired him, so that he

could begin the project of constructing a worldwide team. It turned out to be okay for me to go to

North Carolina with him so, we then arranged a flight for the day.

It was Monday morning, and I had the feeling it was going to be a great day. We got up

around 4 a.m. in order to catch the 6:30 flight to North Carolina. On our way to the airport I got

as much beauty sleep as possible in order to prepare for the day in North Carolina. We arrived to

the airport and got to our flight on time. As soon as we got to our seats, I took out my notebook

in order to prepare for the questions I had to ask dad and as well as others within the real estate

sector. He took out the newspaper and started to read. As the time continued to roll forward, we

finally landed. He told me as soon as we're able to take off our seat belts, let's try and be close to

the first ones off. Understanding who he was, and how “If you're not five minutes early, then

you're late,” I instantly gathered all my belongings and got ready to take off. BING! Unclicked

and immediately, we took off headed for the Uber.


Once we caught our Uber, I asked my dad “What the day is going to look like as far as

scheduling?” He answered, “The day is not too hectic, I had already planned in time for our

interview, for about 2 to 3 hours at around 2 P.M., and then I will see if you can meet with

another one of my colleagues while I have to take care of a few things.” I nodded and said

“Okay.” After about 15 more minutes we finally arrived to Fidelity’s Headquarters, and again I

was amazed.

This structure was yet another one of a kind, and to be completely honest, I had really no

idea how to describe the building's beauty. Instead of a huge glass panoramic structure, the

structure consisted of multiple dimensions of white and glass, with another magnificent entrance.

There was much natural complementary elements within the environment. Incredibly inviting

and soothing, pink, yellow, orange, red, flowers lining the borders, huge trees overhanging the

sidewalks, providing great shade for while walking. I asked my dad, “What place do you like

better?” He responded, “No preference, after working all these years, I just like the fact that I get

to finally work in a peaceful environment.” Of course this made sense. Walking through the

relatively normal glass doors, we were greeted again with a huge front desk with two security

guards. Immediately while walking in, the two security guards greeted us, “Good Morning Mr.

Gannon! May I ask if you have a visitor today?” Greeting them back, “Hi Jamale, hi Sydney,

long time no see, how's your two mornings goin'?” They responded, “So far so good. Is this your

son you have here today? Will he be visiting us?” “Yes he will be. He will be interviewing me

and maybe along with a couple of others while we explore the site here.” They smiled. I greeted

them after their discussion and shook their hands. During the time they were talking, I thought to

myself, “If I am going to be interviewing employees with backgrounds that are commonly not

emphasized as much as others, then why not also look at the employees in the sector of security.”


Even though I had no premeditated questions to guide a quick interview I asked Jamal and

Sydney, “Would you mind if I borrow some of your time asking just a few very general

questions because you actually could help out my interview process a lot?” Shockingly they

agreed and asked, “What exactly is the process about or for?” I said, “For my summer class, I

have to conduct an ethnographic research paper researching something specific. I chose

investment and now I have to research how overlooked employees feel about the company.”

They opened their eyes in slight shocking look and agreed that they would love to be of some

help. My dad said, “go-ahead and you can meet me in my office when you are done, it’ll give me

time to get a head start on some things!” “Awesome!” I responded.

Figuring that these types of security employees do not get that much attention, I felt that

their voice would be somewhat beneficial, since they relate to the overlooking of employee

functioning. They had the typical security attire on, maintaining a respectable appearance. I

began with the first question, “How long have you two worked here?” Jamal answered, “For

about almost two years now,” and Sydney said “A year in January.” Sydney was very direct;

Jamal was more friendly. I then asked them how they like working for Fidelity, and they both

responded basically the same thing. There is not really too much that goes on here for them to

keep themselves excessively engaged. They spend a lot of the time either sitting around or

watching certain video feeds during certain times. I asked them, “Why do you have to watch

these video feeds at certain times?” Both responded, “We cannot disclose that information.” It

must have had something to do with corporation law and what information can be publicly

known. It instantaneously reminded me of the Duty's in the article written by Lydenberg (2016),

“how the responsibilities of the fiduciary are some of the most important because of being

written by law. More specifically regarding the 'The Duty of Good Faith' which is when the


employee must act with a conscious regard for their responsibilities.” In correlation with these

two security guards, we can see a level of parallel to the fiduciary by having to righteously

uphold their responsibilities in order to sustain a healthy growing company. After concluding this

matter, I decided to part ways respectfully in reason to not jeopardize any more of their

responses / duties and end with the question of where my dad’s office is located. Sydney pointed

to the right and said, “Follow the hallway down and look for the elevator, take it fifth floor and

you should then be able to find him from there on your right!” I said, “Thank you,” and smiled

and walked down the hall in search of the elevator.

I made my way to the elevator and found my dad’s office with no problem. The layout

was not overly exhausting whatsoever. Once I got to his office, I asked, “Am I interrupting

anything?” While trying to be polite, he responded, “No, not at all, come in and sit down and

once I am done with this e-mail we will walk over to other VP’s office, and I will introduce

you.” “Okay,” I said. I sat down and began to finalize my questions that I had for the other VP. I

wanted to gain a better idea of how he felt about real estate within Fidelity Investments. Finally,

the time came, and my dad took me over to meet the other VP, his colleague.

He was dressed in a dark red dress shirt; it was not all the way buttoned but still portrayed

a level of higher authority. He had no tie, dress pants, and very nice shoes that looked so bright

that it looked as if I could use his shoes as a mirror. We shook hands and introduced each other.

He had an incredibly firm handshake, and he reminded me of exactly how my dad shakes. My

dad left us to kick it off, while he made way back to his office. I told him that a lot of what I was

going to be asking him was going to be used in a paper and, if he wants to use a ghost name that

it would be okay. He chose the name Bob. I asked Bob, “What would you say is the main

differentiator between you and most of the people that work Fidelity Investments?” He said,


“Fidelity has a lot of tenured employees while I have worked at multiple companies for not as

long, I like variety and change.” This made sense, because Fidelity requires a high level of

experience and certain pieces of criteria when it comes to their most common employee position.

He began to tell me that the crowd for employment that Fidelity looks for is at zero percent,

which made almost no sense to me, so I asked him “How?” He said, “These fiduciary jobs

people hold, are very hard positions to fill, so here you can see a high level of dedication and a

high unpredictability rate when it comes to employees dropping out of these jobs.” When I heard

employment rates relating to the fact of finding jobs, instantaneously I thought “job finding

rates” and “job separation rates.” I remembered in the article “The Cyclicality of Separation and

Job Finding Rates,” that in order to find these, that we have to “consider measures of separation

and job finding rates derived using monthly data from the CPS”(Fujita, Ramey, 2009) over a

period of time. According to Bob, they have a very low turnover rate regarding fiduciaries

because of their demand for area of expertise, which ultimately shows with consideration to

statistics as in why one would have a 0% job finding rate.

I said to Bob that it sounds like that there is not as much emphasis regarding you and

your job as compared to others and their related jobs. Instantly he said, “Oh of course! Real

Estate in the investment sector, are you kidding me! I thought it was my dream job, however, I

appeared to be wrong, if anything this job does not challenge me enough.” Due to my prior

prediction, I was not entirely surprised but somewhat moved. In turn, I responded, “How come

you don’t feel challenged? Would you say you get bored?” “I think it mostly has to deal with the

fact that all our company is about is saving money, so when it comes to building these

investment services buildings, either they are not that big or they resemble all the other

somewhat larger buildings. We have to get confirmation from our bosses first, before we make


any final decisions and most of us VP’s are not used to that,” said Bob. “So overall it sounds like

not only is there little attention towards your sector within the company but there is also a high

level of restriction advisory?” I asked. “Joe, you hit the nail right on the head.” I had some

sympathy for Bob, because who wants to be a VP within a company and have almost no area to

work their specialties? I thanked him for his time, by responding “I hope your paper turns out

well! If there's anything else you need let me know!” “Of course” I said, and made way back to

my dad’s office.

I was very excited to interview my dad about his work because not only is there a good

level of comfortability but I know him very well as a person, so I knew that I would be able to

ask some questions and get some very good responses back with no severe hesitation or biases.

He is definitely the hardest worker I know, and I had a good feeling that this next interview was

going to go very well. As soon as I got back, my dad was on a phone call and his door was shut. I

did not want to bother him so I walked passed his office and went to go look around. While

looking around, I came to the conclusion that I probably should not be investigating too far, as I

could possibly walk in, or in front of, something very important, after seeing all the room

plaques stating very high positions within the company.

I got back to my dad’s office, with a clear heavy vibrant sun beaming right down on his

office room. He was finally off the phone, so I took the chance to ask him if we could take care

of the interview. “Certainly”, he said, “Sit down and we can get started whenever you’re ready!”

The first question I asked him was “What does your average work day consist of?” He

responded, “The average work day consist of improving the workplace, solving problems and

challenges of relating to buildings.” This was a very short and concise answer, but knowing my

dad, this was not surprising whatsoever; he is more of the kind of person, less chit chat, and more


facts. Following his response, the next question I asked was, “Is this job what you expected it to

be? Why or why not?” Immediately he responded: “No, the reason no because the key person

hired me, since has left. And Placed on work not anticipated.” I remembered him telling me that

his boss left in the past and asked him why this has impacted him. He took about 30 seconds to

think of an appropriate response, “Well, the key guy that hired me, I had a really good

relationship with, and when he left, I was kind of left in a an unexpected pit, because this was the

guy that was basically my boss, and having a new replacement, was basically like hitting a wall

in a sense.” I looked at him a little surprised with his response, and said, “how do you feel now?”

“How I feel about my new boss?” my dad asked. “Yes, I guess you could put it that way.” “Well

she’s alright, she's smart and everything, but there's still this feeling of a little uncertainty

because of her still being new and all.” “Perfectly understandable,” I said, scanning through my

notes, I looked for my next question. Discovering it, I continued by asking him “How do you like

working in the real estate side of business for a financial services company?” He responded

pretty enthusiastically by saying, “I like it, I am able to provide my area of expertise for a strong

branded company.” This was undoubtedly true. I remember what Bukowitz said in his article

about Fidelity’s success, stating: “Fidelity is the fourth largest mutual funds and financial

services group in the world. They are subject to 25 million individual investors, with a staggering

5.1 trillion dollars in customer assets and 5.1 trillion dollars in assets.” I was easily able to see

why he was so hyped up in response, being able to help a leading competitor grow, would of

course be enjoyable. So in response I asked him, “What does your average work day consist of?”

““The average work day consist of improving the workplace, solving problems and challenges of

relating to buildings.” This made most sense, and felt that it didn’t require any expansion.


After getting a general sense of what his job entailed and how I felt about it, I wanted to

conclude with some ending questions that would provide more provocative feedback regarding

commonly overlooked employees. So I asked my father, “What is the investment industry like in

your eye’s as an instructor of real estate?” “Instructor?” “Or should I say, “VP of real estate,”

“Ohh I see what you're getting at now. ell it is highly regulated compliance industry, because a

lot of the products we deal with a lot of security related issues.” When he said highly regulated, I

knew he meant low budget and a lot of compliance regulations referring real estate. “So how

does this job differ from your last job that you had?” “Last job was working for a publicly owned

company and now working for a privately owned company by a family.” This raised my brow, I

should have probably known this, but did not. “And what other parts of the company do you

have a lot of involvement with, as far as employment sectors?” “Procurement and Technology,

these are the people that I deal with on a day to day basis.” “Okay,” I said. The last question I

wanted to ask was: “If there was one thing that you could change about Fidelity and the way that

they allow you to work, what would it be?” Again an immediate response, “I would look for a

greater level of delegation of authority among st the organization.” Really intrigued by this

answer, I could make sense as in why he would say something like this, after all, the job was

exactly as anticipated, it did restrict him from a lot more of his capabilities and also had a huge

structural change within the company.

The End Result

After this whole interview process, I can honestly say, that a whole new horizon has been

opened within my perspective on the investment industry. What exactly? The fact that Fidelity

Investments is one of the largest growing private companies has a large concentration on driving

profitability and a low emphasis on real estate expansion along with a couple smaller subset


employment levels (security guard). It really opened a new light, seeing that large companies

don't always necessarily provide 100% effectiveness towards each critical employment level.

This makes sense though. As hard as it is to grasp, it makes perfect sense. Investment companies

want to drive profit, not spending money on extravagant structures and large amounts of land.

They want their real estate simple and following orderly conduct spending as little money as

possible. Whereas the high spending levels pertain specifically towards their speciality,

investment.

Fidelity Investments is a company that has left a true mark on my life. Not only has the

company opened up my eye to a whole new aspect of employee demands, but also towards the

level of complexity that is required for the company to be so successful. The people that work for

Fidelity are beyond respectful and more than helpful, while at the same time doing their job at a

top notch level. Top notch level work for a top notch level company. Fidelity Investments

although a business, is also classified as a subculture of business because of their area of work:

investment. For the first time of my life I was not able to see money as an object, but rather as an

area of expertise through the investment subculture. In conclusion, after thorough investigation,

investment is a subculture that contains dominant growth aspects within the business industry:

loyalty, management, and efficiency. Without these elements, there would be no investment.


References

Bukowitz, W. R. (2013). Fidelity investments: Adopting new models of

innovation.Strategy & Leadership,41(2), 5863.

Fujita, S., & Ramey, G. (2009). The Cyclicality of Separation and Job Finding Rates.

International Economic Review,50(2), 415430. Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/stable/20486868

Lydenberg, Steve. "Reason, Rationality and Fiduciary Duty." Cambridge Handbook of

Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty (n.d.): 28799. Http://psu.libguides.com/. Web. 26

June 2016

Peavler, Rosemary. "What Are Profitability Ratios?" About Money, 26 Feb. 2016. Web.

05 July 2016.

Rosenberg, Matts M. "Firm Risk, Investment, and Employment Growth." Journal of

Economics and Finance J Econ Finan 28.2 (2004): 164-84. Http://psu.libguides.com/. Web. 28

June 2016.


Appendix A

Business Cycle Framework for Fidelity Investments (2016)'s Review

Documents

Final- Project 5