Crisis Advisers to Lehman Brothers!

Last week I talked about our badly-timed corporate gift - a branded travel coffee mug introduced right at the start of the travel ban. That made me think about the corporate gift we nearly produced but didn’t. It was an umbrella emblazoned with the fact that Crisis Solutions were the crisis advisers to Lehman Brothers. We had worked with Lehman Brothers throughout 2006 and 2007, running some crisis training events and several exercises. For those unfamiliar with the story, Lehman Brothers, one of the largest investment banks in the world, spectacularly crashed, their bankruptcy prompting the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. Of course, they weren’t going to take crisis advice from us, so the claim on the umbrella was obviously a bit tongue in cheek. We thought that handing out umbrellas telling people that we had been their crisis advisers before their failure might have raised a few smiles - but we thought better of it.

Our crisis exercises with them culminated in a ‘follow the sun’ exercise starting in Tokyo, moving on to London and finishing in New York. We had Crisis Solutions people at each of the locations. So what did I learn from Lehman Brothers about the personal dynamics of a crisis team? Well, if you’ve ever seen Wolf of Wall Street or the Big Short, then I can tell you that those films perfectly characterised the type of individual running Lehman Brothers. Testosterone-filled men shouting at each other. Yes, they were all men - and there’s almost certainly a lesson there. If they had had a woman (preferably more than one!) on the team then they may have been more successful at managing a crisis - real or simulated.

The ‘Heads of’ on the crisis team were a certain type of individual. Completely and absolutely convinced that they were infallible, they acted at breakneck speed, handing down orders without seeming to concern themselves whether the decision was right or wrong. Being seen to act quickly seemed a strength. Pausing to ask questions or to gather opinions was clearly seen as a weakness. Not one of them could countenance that somebody else might have a better idea than them. 

To what extent this management style contributed to the firm’s downfall, I can only speculate. But my recollections of the management style at Lehman Brothers was one of the great ‘take aways’ of that era. Though I could have had a more lasting memento - as Crisis Solutions were creditors in the bankruptcy the practitioners dealing with the insolvency offered us 7,500 discounted office chairs!