I love writing and design. To me, writing and design are deeply entwined. We live in narrative—verbal and visual—and we learn through stories. As designer and writer, understanding people’s needs, desires, and cares is rooted in storytelling. Just as communication is at the heart of design, narrative is at the heart of communication.
Published 2010 © Jeanette Leagh for the China–US Business Leaders Round Table
Duncan Niederauer, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange-Euronext, is an important man. Even with an appointment, it’s no easy task for an outsider to gain entry into NYSE-Euronext’s iconic building. Visitors journey through a series of identification checks and metal detectors that open up to a lobby where stock updates speed along LED strips and traders with colored vests hurry past carrying paper take-out bags during lunch hour.
I meet with Mr. Niederauer, on a chilly and rainy early spring afternoon on Wall Street, to learn about his current views on Chinese companies coming to the world market, and to discuss what he personally hopes the inaugural round table will achieve. Mr. Niederauer is a direct and plain-spoken man with a sense of humor one finds disarming and refreshing. He grips my hand in a firm shake, and welcomes my colleague and me into his office. He and Matt Scogin, his Chief of Staff, settle into adjacent armchairs facing us and with little fanfare or formality we begin.
Why does NYSE-Euronext want to collaborate with China in this capacity, and why now?
“For starters, China is a place that is not only important to the US but also important to this company.” Mr. Niederauer begins. With more than 80 Chinese companies already listed in the NYSE-Euronext family, the round table supplies a platform to work with Chinese companies now that are likely to be part of the NYSE-Euronext community later, he explains. China’s markets are retail-dominant and growing faster than the still young and emergent Chinese financial infrastructure. Mr. Niederauer foresees many Chinese companies from diverse industries looking to go public in a market that cannot yet accommodate their myriad of needs.
“We think that the local Chinese market will not provide the opportunity exclusively for all those companies to go public.” He believes NYSE-Euronext can be an opportune arena for many Chinese companies to come to market even as China’s own capital markets continue to mature. It’s fair to say that NYSE—with its beginnings in the eighteenth century—is a far more developed market.
“That means we have an incredibly rich history, right?, ” he asks playfully. Of course, this is also a burden, “because most people would say anyone with that long a history can’t possibly be innovative, can’t possibly be on the cutting edge of technology, probably doesn’t have much of an attitude or willingness to experiment.” In Mr. Niederauer’s view, co-hosting the round table sends a clear message that NYSE is not only versatile, but forward-thinking, by “trying something that really hasn’t been tried before in the US.”
NYSE and China parallel each other in a curious way. They are two enterprises asserting their inventiveness despite histories both steeped in longevity and stability. Looking at NYSE’s expansive timeline, for 50 and 100 years of its history, very little changed. Yet in the last five to ten years, the velocity of change has been unprecedented. “And I think you could say the same thing about China in a lot of ways, right?” Mr. Niederauer pauses briefly. “It’s a very interesting parallel because we’re both trying to convince the rest of the world that we’re not who and what you think we are, that we’re comfortable moving at a much faster pace—that we’re adaptable.”
For two countries with uncommon pasts but, it seems, increasingly common futures, would gathering in the world’s epicenter of capitalism for the round table be a historic event? “I don’t know if my expectations are that high, to be honest with ya, ” Mr. Niederauer answers candidly. For him, the goal is to build relationships that will last into the future. Despite cultural differences and language barriers, with sessions closed to media and the aid of simultaneous translators, he hopes for sincere and substantive
conversation to take place on April 15. “We’re hoping, because this is a round table, that there’s more dialogue. If it’s just all speeches, it’s not going to do much for the attendees, I don’t think.”
So perhaps historic is too lofty a goal. In Mr. Niederauer’s mind, the round table will prove successful if the participants use it as a springboard to learn from one another and build long-lasting relationships. “And if we happen to be seen as the place that convened the meeting, and we were the common link to getting all those people together, that’s enough history for me.”