Sandler O’Neill

In the dog eat dog shrewdly capitalistic world of financial trading, one would not expect to see an exemplar of Ubuntu. Recalling the chaos of the first few weeks after the attacks, Dunne shared with us that Sandler O Neill simply would not have made it without help from its friends, existing clients, new clients, and surviving employees. Initial help came, unexpectedly from its competitors ... 

This form of competition was demonstrated in the Sandler O Neil and Partners 9/11 example discussed in Chapter i. In summary, the World Trade Center financial firm s trading desk was decimated when it was victimized in the September ii, 2001 tragedy. Not only did their competitors NOT take advantage of this disaster to eviscerate Sandler O Neil in its crippled state, they helped it to weather the storm. Since virtually all of the desk traders had been killed, competitors taught non-traders at Sandler O Neill how to trade thus, enabling them to stay in business. Competing in THIS way promotes organizational sustainability—for all competitors. 

Next, we share select examples of how we ve seen each dimension of Ubuntic inclusion manifest itself in other organizations. After that, we end the chapter with an explanation of how Ubuntic inclusion manifested itself at Sandler O Neill, the Wall Street financial firm we discussed in the introduction. Our hope is that yougain concrete ideas on how Ubuntic inclusion can transform organizations, making them more interconnected, resilient, and energized. 

In Chapter i, the Introduction we mentioned the Wall Street Trading firm Sandler O Neill Partners, LP, which was located on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center s South Tower until 9 02 a.m. on Tuesday, September II, 2001.3 highlight this company because we believe it serves as a very... 

Prominent CEOs, lawyers, financial advisers and many other volunteers showed up at Sandler s temporary offices to help. Relatives answered phones, laid cable and set up computers ex-employees worked the phones and once trading began the following Monday, volunteers traded for the firm and for the deceased without taking salary and commissions. When Sandler O Neill moved into temporary headquarters two weeks after the attack, it was impossible to tell who was a Sandler employee and who was a hired hand, relative or volunteer. One employee noted, We were fortunate to have good people with background and training in various areas come in to help us. ... 

It is this deeply and widely felt sense of (Connection to a larger and often moral cause that we described in our model of Ubuntic inclusion. Sandler O Neill clearly drew unprecedented levels of strength, resolve, and resilience from this sense of moral purpose. 

Almost immediately after the attacks, Dunne began saying, I need to be more like Herman now. I need to be more like Chris now. He has said it so often it has become his mantra. He wants Sandler O Neill to remain the same kind of firm it was before Sept, ii, to still embody the best of its three leaders, even though two of them are dead. So he can t just be tough and scrappy. He has to learn to be patient and supportive as well. This isn t just an emotional issue it s a business necessity. Sandler s employees are so fragile now that they couldn t handle the old Dunne blowups. It s hard to change, though."... 

We shared just a snippet of Sandler O Neill s recovery and survival through, perhaps, the worst tragedy a firm, city, or nation can endure. Our hope in sharing this was to demonstrate that Ubuntic inclusion is not something that firms practice simply because it is the right thing to do-such practices are often endemic to a firm s very survival. 

K. Brooker (2002), Starting over. When the planes slammed into the World Trade Center on Sept, ii, few companies were as hard hit as Sandler O Neill, J ortune, European Edition, 745(2), 26. Retrieved on January 21, 2014 from http //money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune archive/2002/01/21/316599/index.htm... 

S. F. Freeman, L. Hirschhorn, M. M. Triad (2003, August), Moral purpose and organizational resilience Sandler O Neill Partners, LP in the sltermathofSeptemhetii,2001,iiiaAcADEMroFoMANAGEMENTPROCEEDiNGS 2003(1), B1-B6, Academy of Management. 

D. Whitford (2011), Sandler O Neill s journey from ground zero, J ortune, 164(4), 94-106. 

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