RJ and Makay

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman has been taking the firm in a new direction. Since officially taking over for John Mack in January 2010, he’s been working on reshaping the firm “so that it can prosper in a post-world crisis,” according to The Economist in its story about Morgan Stanley.

While still in the midst of making over the firm, it looks like Gorman has made some progress already. The most significant contribution he’s instrumented so far has been the joint venture with Smith Barney, which is helping the firm significantly compensate for some of its earlier losses. Smith Barney’s 18,000-member brokerage unit was its most profitable division in the third quarter, boasting earnings of $281 million. In the asset management division, earnings came in at $279 million, and in the institutional securities division they were at $240 million.