Architects of Electronic Trading: Technology Leaders Who Are Shaping Today's Financial Markets

CHAPTER 1

Meet the Architects

Agents of Change

■ A Vision and a Plan

The technology leaders featured in this book are agents of change, persuading their constituencies to adopt technology selectively to enhance business processes and advising them on how to do so. They understand the importance of enterprise class technology; they have clear visions and control the resources for their implementation.

The leaders profiled in this book are visionaries in that not only can they identify current opportunities where technology can add value, but also they are capable of imagining how future advances in technology could continue to enhance our businesses going forward. This creative capacity—the ability to couple creativity and technology—is a key attribute.

Always on the lookout for an edge, financial firms recognized early the value of technology and smart technologists. These firms have been early adopters of technology throughout the trade cycle. As markets become increasingly competitive, financial firms have become proponents of new technology—and empowered their technologists. Not surprisingly, smaller, more nimble participants have taken the lead in this process. One caveat is that some firms tend to view technology as a straight revenue play. These firms seem to hesitate to invest in IT except in areas where its implementation generates immediate revenue. The leaders featured in this book understand that spending on technology in other areas, like the back office, is often ...