Morgan Stanley IPO Report: Delivering an Honest Ranking Under Client Pressure

Shashwat worked on a market research engagement for Morgan Stanley, which was preparing an IPO report and wanted the subject company positioned as favorably as possible relative to its peers. The client's specific ask was to place the company within the top five in its competitive set.

When the team ran the benchmarking, the company ranked significantly lower than the client had hoped. The gap between the expectation and the evidence was substantial.

Rather than adjusting the methodology to reach the desired outcome, the team reviewed the data thoroughly and identified every legitimate basis for a stronger ranking. They worked through the analysis again, stress-tested the parameters, and found the most defensible position the evidence could support.

The result was a ranking meaningfully better than the raw output, but still short of the client's target. Shashwat and the team walked Morgan Stanley through the full methodology, explaining why the ranking landed where it did and what the evidence showed.

Morgan Stanley accepted the outcome. The client acknowledged that the final ranking, grounded in rigorous analysis, was the strongest honest position available.