Real situations from inside brokerage and trading firms, anonymised. What was actually wrong, what got done about it, and what we'd do differently. Useful whichever side of the desk you sit on.
Firms share wins. The genuinely useful material — the restructure that failed, the hire that was wrong from day one — never leaves the building.
Most expensive mistakes in this industry have been made before, several times, in several regions. No reason for anyone to repeat one.
No frameworks, no maturity models, no diagram with four quadrants. What we saw, what we tried, what worked.
Firms, people, dates and identifying detail are changed or removed. Some are composites of several engagements. The lesson is real; the fingerprint isn't.
Written for anyone working in this industry — whether you run a firm, work inside one, or are deciding whether to join one.