LAST FALL THE TOP BRASS OF EATON VANCE Corp. summoned the 525 employees at its Boston headquarters to a mandatory meeting about the future of the 83-year-old asset manager. Amid rumors that leveraged-buyout investors were circling the firm, CEO James Hawkes and president Thomas Faust outlined an ambitious plan to propel Eaton Vance -- a bit player in the consolidating money management business despite a decade of brisk growth -- into the industry's upper echelon alongside such giants as Fidelity Investments, Capital Group Cos.' American Funds complex and Franklin Resources. Hawkes, a former U.S. Navy officer, christened the project Catapult and livened up the late-September presentation with video clips of warplanes taking off from aircraft carriers.

"Eaton Vance is a mainstream firm and a premier asset manager," Hawkes told his charges. "There's just one problem: The world hasn't figured it out."

He was right on both counts. Hawkes and Faust had...