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It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

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Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#151

I work for a large healthcare system, and the "we're not a tech company" line is often heard. At many levels, I agree—we're in the business of delivering healthy outcomes to our communities, so we need to make sure that efforts across the enterprise support that—but it is often applied in ways that stifle us from delivering what we feel would be the most impactful and cost-effective solutions. I like to respond that…

>"I like to respond that Netflix isn't a tech company, either—they're in the business of delivering entertainment."

knowing multiple people from netflix; this is literally a very-uninformed comment...

Much of what you even KNOW about cloud-computing, spot markets, streaming, CDNs, etc was pioneered by netflix.

They are secretive, but innovative as heck. So, your comment is a big NOPE.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#153
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Omnicom: $15B revenue annually, $17B market cap WPP: $18B revenue, $23B market cap Google: $110B revenue, $750B market cap Seems like a good argument that being tech-forward provides a multiplier on value versus doing the same old thing, if you believe that these are all just advertising companies.

Hardly a fair comparison, considering Google's extensive non-advertising product offerings

"if you believe that these are all just advertising companies."

I'm not the one calling Google an all-advertising company, I'm just saying that if it is, it's by far the biggest.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#154

I was just at a dev mixer and ran into an engineer at Bank of America. He told me they have 5000 Python developers on staff. I almost fell out of my chair - never would have guessed it. I know there's competition for top talent in NYC, but that's still a surprising number.

Bofa has an abnormally large python group because of their back office stack. Afaik, the head of team responsible for that decision left a few years ago when it was having some major problems. I didn't realize it was still their bread and butter.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#155

I work for a large healthcare system, and the "we're not a tech company" line is often heard. At many levels, I agree—we're in the business of delivering healthy outcomes to our communities, so we need to make sure that efforts across the enterprise support that—but it is often applied in ways that stifle us from delivering what we feel would be the most impactful and cost-effective solutions. I like to respond that…

It looks like Goldman has no tech people among their top executives. I would have expected at least a CTO or CIO. I don't see this working out for them. http://www.goldmansachs.com/who-we-are/leadership/executive-...

Then who do engineers report to?

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in technology for an investment bank and i hear “we are not a technology company” every quarter. Ironically, the tech we develop is a major factor, if not the only factor, for revenue. My motivation is instantly shattered when i hear that.

I used to work in another financial-related company and "IT is a cost not a revenue center" was thrown around as often as possible. Raise, promotion, formation, a computer made in this decade, anything really would get us that answer. Not only from my boss, but from the IT's top director in various meetings and one-on-one. I used to find it highly frustrating and unfair given that the company would cease to exists wi…

>I used to work in another financial-related company and "IT is a cost not a revenue center" was thrown around as often as possible

This has literally always been the case with IT; they were always seen as cost-centers, not profit.... which is largely due to IT departments historically falling under the CFO....

CEO: "Keep these motherfuckers from spending money"

IT: if "You want this [project] to meet your requirements of [XYZ]?, then == $2000000

CFO: "Fuck you, lets do it for half that and drop security and accessibility as a result"

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#157

This isnt really true. Banks dont pay anywhere near tech salaries. Its all lip service. The flow of good engineers is always banks -> tech companies and never tech companies -> banks.

Sometimes in the early stage of their careers people make mistakes (including myself) to move from tech company to a bank. Never doing this mistake again. I've never seen so much legacy code, poor engineering decision and code standards in my career so far. Of course this could be limited experience to my department, but given the comments here it feels like this is a standard situation across the "tech" in the financial world.

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#159

I work for a large healthcare system, and the "we're not a tech company" line is often heard. At many levels, I agree—we're in the business of delivering healthy outcomes to our communities, so we need to make sure that efforts across the enterprise support that—but it is often applied in ways that stifle us from delivering what we feel would be the most impactful and cost-effective solutions. I like to respond that…

It looks like Goldman has no tech people among their top executives. I would have expected at least a CTO or CIO. I don't see this working out for them. http://www.goldmansachs.com/who-we-are/leadership/executive-...

Marty Chavez was, but got promoted:

> Prior to assuming his current role, Mr. Chavez was Chief Information Officer, responsible for the Technology Division

Profile on him from a few years back: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/business/dealbook/goldman...

Re: It's Getting Harder to Tell Banks from Tech Companies

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like Goldman has no tech people among their top executives. I would have expected at least a CTO or CIO. I don't see this working out for them. http://www.goldmansachs.com/who-we-are/leadership/executive-...

Then who do engineers report to?

Presumably a VP of engineering
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