Daniel Doctoroff, former deputy mayor of New York City, was tasked with leading a five-borough economic development plan under Mayor Michael Bloomberg before he became CEO of Bloomberg L.P. in 2008. At a recent UJA-Federation of New York”™s Westchester Business and Professional Division breakfast in West Harrison, Doctoroff shared his outlook on the economy and globalization.
On emerging markets and New York”™s role:
“Emerging markets are gaining market share in the investment business. What it means for the U.S. ”“ it doesn”™t have to be bad at all. (Bloomberg) is headquartered in New York. We increased the size of our workforce by about 2,000 people over the past three years. We made a decision as the financial crisis was unfolding to actually take a risk. We build our product here. ”¦ as the world grows faster (in terms of securities and trading), companies with global reach here in New York can benefit ”¦ if we”™re nimble enough to take advantage of it.”
On ”˜insatiable demand”™ for information:
“This year, the number of news sources that people are looking at is up almost 20 percent. ”¦ We surveyed business executives last year ”¦ and the average (one) looks at nine different news sources a week online alone. The fear of missing something, the fear of looking stupid grows”¦ The struggle to be better informed ”¦ is intensifying.”
On hype vs. reality, financially speaking:
“While you read the headlines about UBS laying people off and Deutsche Bank perhaps going to Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs ”“ all that is true ”“ but the reality is, markets, and this is especially true in America as opposed to Europe, are amazingly dynamic. ”¦ In the first year after the (Lehman) collapse, Bloomberg added 3,000 new firms as customers. Many had one person or two or five people, but they were people who typically got fired from their job or decided they had enough with Wall Street firms and wanted to do something different. As we look back at it now ”¦ many of those firms went out of existence ”¦ left and went back to Wall Street, some of those firms grew and actually have been quite significant players in different markets. But the point is: We saw immediately out of the financial crisis, the seed starting to sprout and that has continued.”
