Bridgewater is relieved to have two outsourcers since the "failover protocol" ensures that one business can always pick up the slack if the other encounters delays, outages, or breakdowns.
Before developing strategic partnerships with the two outsourcers, Bridgewater went through "a thorough two-year assessment of a number of companies." Although Bridgewater has always had an "excellent back office," Murray claims that having two outsourcers helps the business to "address problems more swiftly than a single supplier." “I admire the way Bridgewater handles difficulties and challenges, seeking the best solution for customers and Bridgewater rather than focusing only on [short-term] cost considerations,” she says.
On the surface, having two overlapping outsourcers appears to be a costly strategy. Bridgewater also pulls into the intellectual capital of the two organizations in respect to the developing regulatory environment, she adds, adding that internal expenses may even be lowered by having access to external specialists who are serving the regulatory needs of numerous customers.
Murray recognizes the rising complexity of regulation, noting that just 38% of Dodd Frank has been interpreted and applied thus far, with the remaining 62 percent to be completed.
And that overlooks changes in rules outside the US, where she thinks "various authorities will continue to have different needs and demands that must be met, and this is not cheap." Despite the advantages of outsourcing regulatory reporting, Murray insists that Bridgewater is responsible for the results.
Murray's responsibilities at Bridgewater are informed by her previous experience as controller and treasurer at Morgan Stanley, where she rose to COO of the institutional division following the Dean Witter acquisition. She was in charge of operations, product control, operational risk, and technology at Credit Suisse.
Murray believes that technology is still in its infancy, and she is continually inspired by the inventive and creative people she encounters in the field.
Bridgewater combines all of these functions, but she adds, "coming to Bridgewater was more about having an effect, being among like-minded individuals in terms of beliefs, and really loving the people I work with." She claims that the Bridgewater culture is one of "radical openness," in which everyone is "obliged to express their views and point out flaws," and that the company is "constantly improving by concentrating on areas that can be improved." Bridgewater draws a diverse group of people who "understand the collective benefit of harnessing that variety." The firm is "completely meritocratic," with "every right for the most junior employee to speak up as if he or she were the most senior person." Murray believes that this "social compact with each other to express our thoughts eliminates politics," and that with a diverse workforce, "being female is actually unimportant - the focus is on obtaining the best people, how they think, and what they are like." “An amazing amount of time is spent studying different ways of thinking, and how Eileen Murray is as an individual,” the company says.
Bridgewater's famed management principles, which are "pervasive across the firm," include radical openness, as well as a culture of constructive criticism and candor, both in operations and beyond.
Murray believes that the sector and regulators' attention to operational risk has been "far overdue," and that the activity requires "excellent individuals who feel comfortable bringing forward any concerns they identify." A good example is dual outsourcers. This appears to be counterintuitive in comparison to other businesses, yet it has several advantages.
It provides significant risk reduction, which is beneficial to Bridgewater clients because the function will be backed up by NT if BNY has any difficulties. The fact that BNY and NT are in separate geographical areas provides additional systemic backup, which is useful in the event of blackouts or power outages.
Murray is honored to have won leadership honors from a number of different non-profits. The Women's Bond Club is about professional development, while Legal Momentum supports women with legal difficulties. Urban Stages assists budding actors and actresses.
Murray served on the board of Manhattan College until recently, where she studied accounting amid a diverse group of mostly children of immigrants, setting the groundwork for her stratospheric career path through KPMG, Wall Street, and Bridgewater's bucolic Connecticut site.
