Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated was established in 1935 by Henry Morgan, Harold Stanley and other associates to continue to serve the investment banking clients of J.P. Morgan & Co. following the enactment of the Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933 which required divestiture of the securities arm of the company.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. was created as a result of the 1997 merger of Dean Witter, Discover & Co. and Morgan Stanley Group Inc. Today, Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated are wholly owned subsidiaries of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which also includes Discover Card, NOVUS Financial, Prime Option Services, Discover Brokerage Direct and Van Kampen American Capital.

Headquartered in New York City, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter serves the individual investors through a national network of branch offices, offering a wide range of investment and credit products and services. Additionally, the firm provides investment banking, asset management, and sales and trading through 38 offices in 23 countries around the world.

For Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, innovation and the application of new technology to financial challenges have been hallmarks to their success. The newest and most rapidly growing distribution channel is the Internet. Their firm has positioned itself on the Internet through Discover Brokerage Direct, their online provider of financial services to individuals. In 1998, Discover Brokerage Direct expanded its product line to include proprietary equity research, 24-hour trading of US Government securities and a mutual funds marketplace. They have also introduced several Internet initiatives for Discover Card customers, including online payment capabilities and Discover ShopCenter, which is a new Internet shopping link. In 1999, they plan to focus on the growing number of consumers interested in using the Internet to purchase a variety of products and services.

The ever-present issue of the Internet is also a major issue that management faces in the coming year. Keeping up with technological advancements is the easiest part, but the issue lies within how the company plans to stay afloat with new innovations without taking anything away from the brokers within the firm. By this I mean, that the brokers that have established long-term business and professional relationships with clients face the risk of losing their clients as well as their commission to the ease of on-line trading. Management must come up with a way to advance technologically without offending or stealing from its own employees.

anding $200 to an undercover police officer who was posing as a computer hacker. He was charged with 5 felony counts. His idea was to plant e-mail messages in the company to plot a discrimination lawsuit. The embarrassment alone should be enough for Dean Witter but the company is being investigated for paying off $10,000 to a police officer to obtain the information about Christian Curry. For such an admired finance industry firm, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is now stuck with the racial and discrimination accusations. This, in turn, dramatically affects the company's corporate culture. According to Curry, "The firm not only tolerates a virulent strain of racism and homophobia, but also has no qualms about trying to destroy the life of an employee who fails to fit in" ("Wall St. Victim or Young Rogue?"; The New York Times, section B, pg. 1, column 2). The lawsuit against Curry describes his perceived sexual orientation as evidence of discrimination, which is illegal in New!

In my opinion, I think that Morgan Stanley Dean Witter needs to recognize their corporate culture as a strategic management issue. I don't think they are aware of it being a weakness, but I think it's an issue that needs to addressed.

Recognized for its outstanding equity research, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter ranked #2 out of 27 firms on Institutional Investor magazine's 1997 All-America Research Team, with more analysts ranked number one in the study than any other firm on Wall Street.

The next frontier is the global distribution of securities and asset management products to individuals, particularly to capitalize on the huge pool of savings in Japan and the trend toward privatization of pension funds in Europe. There is no firm, as of yet, with a global retail capability, but Morgan Stanley Dean Witter believes that firms that have the most extensive products and distribution today will have the advantage in developing such a capability tomorrow. In late 1998, they founded a new business unit to pursue global opportunities in retail securities and asset management, and they expect significant strides by the close of this year.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter has "knocked the cover off the ball" this quarter, producing earnings that were 24% ahead of last quarter's record results. The combination of improved market fundamentals and improved market share drove banking and trading revenue higher. They excelled in areas such as investment

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