*Classic example of a company that bought employees, products and markets rather than developing them organically and consequently has little understanding of culture, product development and market strategy. BLK is a company of managers, not thinkers or leaders
*Bureaucratic, conservative and extremely cautious. No support for innovation
*Hyper-political and stratified: Face time is critical, excellent performance is consistently ignored and those at the top levels don't interact---or even speak to---lower level employees
*Lots of dead weight at the top--MDs who should never have been promoted and are not competent or hard working suck up compensation that should be directed to great performers
*Unclear strategy, inability to focus the company on key targets---in part bc senior management is unable to decide on the company's strategic direction and in part bc senior management is most concerned with pumping sales and taking care of each other
*NY-centric: Little understanding of markets or cultures outside Manhattan, even other US cities and especially outside the US
*Below average comp and below average benefits, and the trend for both shows deterioration
