Culture of obnoxiousness required in banks

The final morning session of a conference whose agenda is packed from dawn to dusk could well turn out to be the graveyard slot. Especially when many delegates are trying to conserve energy for the Rugby Sevens which start that afternoon and are always an exhausting in a good way weekend. But Credit Suisse neatly solved this issue at last week's Asian Investor Conference by scheduling Malcolm Gladwell on Friday morning.

Gladwell, the author of bestsellers such as Blink, Outliers and The Tipping Point was introduced by Ali Naqvi, Credit Suisse's head of equities for Asia-Pacific. “Like all good things in life you have to wait to hear Malcolm...