Ms. Nagasaka is a senior analyst in the banking and financial services sector of the Research Division. She joined Morgan Stanley in 2010. She is a graduate of Keio University's Department of Humanities and Social Science, and holds a Master's Degree from Keio Business School. While in graduate school, she studied at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania.
How have you progressed and evolved through your time at Morgan Stanley?
After obtaining my MBA, I joined the research division of a sell-side in 2006, and for approximately 10 years, I was in charge of games, internet, leisure and other content industries. After I joined Morgan Stanley, the firm supported my desire to challenge something new as a research analyst, and in 2016 I was able to move into the banking and financial services sector. It is relatively rare for senior analysts in this industry to change their area of focus, but this is a good example of the structure Morgan Stanley has in place to support individual career plans.
Why made you decide to come to Morgan Stanley?
I believe the major strengths that differentiate Morgan Stanley are its strong global platform and its cooperative structure and culture that fully support individual career plans. In the Research Division, for example, there is an established structure to conduct thorough fundamental analyses globally, and there are many opportunities available to engage ourselves in cross-border or cross-sector projects, which I think are quite unique. At Morgan Stanley, supporting individual career paths is taken seriously, as it was in my case of changing sectors, and this too I think is quite exceptional.
How would you describe the firm's culture?
Our culture is highly transparent and cooperative.
In your experience, where do good ideas get their start?
The global banking team in the Research Division is an extremely large team, with presences in New York, London, Hong Kong, Seoul, Jakarta, Sydney, Tokyo and more, and we hold teleconferences regularly to discuss the global banking industry. Everyone on the team actively participates and raises issues, and we are able to come up with new ideas and insights by engaging in lively and vigorous discussions regardless of years of experience. As the banking and financial services sector is an integral part of our daily life and make up our social infrastructure, it is important to have a broad understanding of trends and issues in other industries outside of finance. Having discussions and exchanging opinions with analysts covering other industries often lead to capturing important issues and new investment ideas.
How has your process changed in the past 5 – 10 years with advances in technology and increasing availability of information?
The financial industry, which we are a part of, is very global with technology evolving at a rapid pace. Analysis from a more global perspective, or cross-border research, has become increasingly important. Use of technology is also the key, as distribution of investment ideas to our institutional investor clients is no longer limited to simply emailing reports, but can be in other forms such as usage of videos.
Tell us about the importance of “Giving Back” - both at the firm and for you personally.
Becoming an equity analyst in the Research Division not only requires high level of expertise, but also requires extensive knowledge in areas such as global macro-environment, individual company research and consumption trends. Morgan Stanley has a structure that gives serious thought to employees’ career plans and provides training and other forms of support to help analysts become self-sufficient. I feel that each individual raising the learning curve will eventually contribute to our clients and to the competitiveness of the division as a whole. At Morgan Stanley, we emphasize respect for the individual, but at the same time, senior leaders proactively pass along their knowledge to juniors. I feel that the spirit of “Giving Back” is strong at Morgan Stanley.
