- Publisher: Palo Alto is likely publisher
- ISBN: Not available yet
Author’s Rationale
The internship concept was originally formulated as an effective countermeasure to the summer madness that could distract or unhinge the future lives and career prospects of well-connected college students fortunate enough to have gained access to the superior cadre of educational institutions.
Numerous stories in the Wall Street Journal and in other media reports indicate how this has changed. An internship now is as important as the college degree which it was meant to supplement or enhance. For B School or Law School students, it is impossible to advance to a career of either interest or reward without a summer of twenty hour days, grindingly boring spreadsheets or a series of terminals, screens or postings where you cannot figure out what’s going on, or if you could, what you might or should do about it. All done for a pittance.
All very interesting, but this world has been well explored in those media reports. What did occur to me as being worthwhile was an exploration of what might happen if one such an intern made an interesting discovery. What if some super intelligent nerd, who was not cast from the same mold as his or her peers, unearthed some earth shattering facts? Better yet, what if there was a gigantic scam underway and our eager, intelligent but unsophisticated and innocent apprentice discovered that ABC Corporation in the Valley, Big Apple or London was ripping off the world.
I hope that when it is published later this year, you will enjoy my ‘take’ on this world.
The Story
Murray Weeks, an MBA student at Harvard Business School lands a valuable three-month internship at Summit Inc. over the summer between his first and second years, where he becomes a fly in the ointment. From a distance, Summit a medium sized investment bank in NYC looks like a place where cool reason, market realities, good ethics and transparency prevail. The reality is different. Insider trading, conflicts of interest and fraud are endemic in its three large divisions. The mid-sized financial bucket shop has a kill or be killed attitude to business. Immersed in this culture sixteen hours a day, its leaders apply their flawed values to every aspect of their daily existence, including the law, regulators and petty nuisances.
Weeks is smart as hell but not worldly wise. He discovers that Summit is a nest of vipers and is rotten to the core. He says so politely in three analytical reports, which he proudly gives to each of the CEOs at the end of his month long sojourn in each division. The three divisional heads, competing fiercely to succeed the retiring Chairman, want no restraints on their freedoms, publicity about their adventures or fallout from his findings as they ramp up their struggle to produce results that will get them to the top. Weeks becomes roadkill on the Wall Street superhighway of investment, trading, private equity and in-house rivalries. He may never have understood the impact of his report or of his behaviour or, perceived any threat to himself from his forthright analysis but some instinct had prompted him to drop off a copy of his document in the mail room before he leaves Summit on his final day.