BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Older companies often face more challenges than newer ones in adapting to new challenges, but they have advantages as well, according to a panel of chief executives at the Milken Institute's Global Conference.
Panelist Alexandra Lebenthal, president and CEO of Lebenthal Holdings, LLC, could relate to both ends of the spectrum, having sold her family's century-old municipal bond company and built a new one in its place.
Lebenthal grew up in a family that founded one of the first municipal bond companies, but she said her family's history means her company benefits from both the institutional knowledge of an older company and the nimbleness of a startup.
The fact she recreated the company also gives her company a nimbleness that doesn't exist for other decades-old or older financial companies, she said.
Her main challenges, Lebenthal said, are dealing with cyber security issues and the regulatory issues impacting the municipal bond industry, such as the municipal advisor rule.
Her impression, she said, is that the federal legislators, who created Dodd-Frank, do not really understand the financial markets, and in particular the muni industry.
What she has found is that the people who enforce the regulations that were implemented - even if they aren't accomplishing what lawmakers intended, which is to protect the financial markets and the consumer - tell financial companies "that it doesn't matter, it's the law."
Online security is one of the biggest new challenges all companies face regardless of their age and size, panelists said.
"Security is no longer a thing that you can just let your chief security officer handle," said panelist Aaron Levie, chief executive of Box, a startup offering online business collaboration tools. "The big shift has been that everyone used to think compliance and security went hand in hand."
