Bobby Axelrod plays Damian Lewis, founder and CEO of Axe
Capital locate din Westport, CT, the fictitious hedge fund company in the
popular TV series “Billions. As the uber alpha male, Axelrod is the 21st
century Gordon Gekko in many respects in that “it’s all about the bucks kid.
The rest is conversation.”
Like Gekko he came from humble backgrounds. Gekko was a CUNY
grad while Axelrod grew up in a blue collar family in Yonkers, NY and graduated
from Hofstra University. Both universities are highly regarded in academic
circles yet they’re not perceived at or even near the same level as Ivy League
or other prestigious private universities. For this reason, despite their respective
tremendous successes their Ivy League competition still slight them in a subtle
disparagingly way at their so-called inferior educational pedigree. This is why
both men are obsessively driven to not only win but completely crush and
humiliate their lofty educated competition.
But getting back to Axe Capital, the architectural design of
the building is an oxymoron. Axe Capital’s interior is light and airy –
practically a large white canvas with few visual distractions to foster greater
collaboration, creativity, cross-fertilization and encouragement for a
free-flow of energy & information with endless possibilities. Except for
the firm’s in-house psychologist whose office justifiably has a solid door for
complete privacy, the work spaces are open cubicles. Even Axelrod’s and upper-management’s
offices are floor-to-ceiling glass enclosures with floor-to-ceiling glass
doors.
However externally the building itself is isolated from
everything else – hidden in plain sight, a standalone structure, a gated
community within a gated community, essentially an open air corporate
inner-sanctum. In other words the only transparency is strictly within the firm,
not with the outside world that creates an odd transparent exclusivity.
With respect to Axe Capital personnel, Bobby Axelrod hires
whoever gives him the best bang for the buck regardless of race, religion,
ethnic background or even gender including non-binary gender as portrayed by actor
Asia Kate Dillon Asia Taylor who, by the way, actually is a non-binary gender
individual. It goes without saying that Axelrod treats all of them equally
ruthlessly, well, because it’s a ruthless business.
In fact he’s attracted to these unconventional types because
he himself is an outsider and contrarian, not with a chip on his shoulder,
rather a mountain range, another subconscious snub at the establishment and
traditional way of doing things in the finance world, even in the cowboy world
of hedge funds.
This makes Axelrod the pure capitalist beast by hiring and firing
personnel specifically on performance - their performance. One could interpret
his humanity when he fired an analyst because of his recommendation to sell a
high-risk investment. But when Axelrod decided to hold the investment resulting
in a massive loss, he went directly to the analyst and “re-hired” him because
it was Axelrod’s final decision, not the analyst’s, that resulted in the loss. This
wasn’t an act of humanity rather responsibility which Axelrod accepted immediately
and publicly which is what you really want in a leader.
I certainly abhor and vigorously condemn Axelrod’s amoral,
illegal and other innumerable transgressions and irregular activities for
monetary gains. Notwithstanding individuals and firms can certainly gain
enormously with respect to Axelrod’s hiring process which is to not only
select, rather uncompromisingly and enthusiastically embrace the absolute best which
often doesn’t come in standard packaging. To put it bluntly, personnel
diversification not only works, it succeeds spectacularly.
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