hurricanemaxi
Joined: 17 Sep 2011
Posts: 83
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 Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 8:27 am Post subject: Wall Street Top Economist Makes ISI No. 1 in Tennis |
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Every morning at 7, employees at ISI Group Inc.’s midtown Manhattan office huddle around a green ping-pong table to discuss sales strategy.
The racket-sport theme continues throughout the day at ISI, an investment research provider and broker-dealer, where tennis has become a business tool. It is used to build camaraderie and client relationships at a firm where the company team includes a collegiate championship doubles finalist and a Davis Cup player, a local club champion and a former ATP Tour player.
“A big part of helping with clients’ performance is getting to know them, their appetite for risk, how they trade, their investment style,” ISI President Vinayak Singh said in an interview. “The more time you find to do that, the better your chances of success, and tennis is one way we achieve that goal.”
ISI, founded by Ed Hyman and Nancy Lazar in 1991, is a 200- employee company that made Institutional Investor’s Top 10 All- America Research Teams in October. The magazine also named Hyman Wall Street’s best economist for the 31st consecutive year.
The firm didn’t set out to build a tennis culture, Hyman, 66, said in a telephone interview. It just developed.
“It’s been more serendipity than it has been grand design,” he said. “We’ve done tennis outings almost every year for quite a while to get clients in and play doubles.”
ISI tried to host one of those outings around the U.S. Open in Queens, New York, which ended Sept. 12, associate managing director Zoltan Csanadi said. ISI’s usual pro-am tournament with clients, in which they play during the day and then attend a night session at the National Tennis Center, was canceled after Tropical Storm Irene hit the city.
Doubles Finalist
Csanadi, a 30-year-old Romanian, was a two-time indoor finalist in doubles at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. During his college years he said he had winning records against current professionals John Isner and Benjamin Becker.
Csanadi sits next to Federico Chavarria, a sales associate who played on three Davis Cup teams for his native Costa Rica and four years at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He said tennis affords ISI a unique vantage point for client interaction.
“It is valuable one-on-one time, and after you’ve played tennis for a while, people tend to open up in a different way than just their business side,” said Chavarria, 24.
The company also benefits from tennis internally, Singh, 44, said. A few years ago, when managing director Charlie Roberson was playing in Midtown Manhattan’s River Club finals, roughly 100 clients and colleagues came out to watch, Singh said.
“It gets everybody excited, it helps build teamwork,” he said. “Tennis has become something in common to cheer for.”
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