Goldman Sachs, the premier investment bank in the world, was until recently Wall Street's last major private partnership, and significantly more profitable than any of its publicly owned competitors. How it sustained this success for most of its 130 years has for decades mystified financial players and pundits. Now, in this fascinating and authoritative study, the Goldman Sachs history and mystique are examined in unprecedented depth. Endlich, a former Goldman Sachs vice president with access to all levels of management, traces the rise and development of the firm in the context of its prevailing concept, 'People and Culture.' She documents how close client-contact, teamwork, and focus on long-term profitability over short-term goals brought the firm to a pinnacle of $3 billion pretax profits in 1997. In June 1998 the partners of Goldman Sachs voted to go public, and it made international front-page news. The decision was resinded 3 months later in the light of the international financial uncertainty, it remains to be seen whether this transformation will continue to attract extensive coverage.
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Goldman Sachs brings you inside the rarefied boardrooms of one of the most secretive Wall Street banking giants. Begun by a German immigrant in the late 1800s as a small family-run business, Goldman Sachs rose to become the world's top investment bank in the 1990s, even without selling stock to the public. It attracted some of the best talent in the business and cultivated an image of superiority and exclusivity. "The Goldman Sachs mystique was born of secrecy and success. Nothing like it exists on Wall Street," writes the author, Lisa Endlich, a former vice president at the firm. But behind that mystique lie tales of being swindled by British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, multimillion-dollar losses on bad trades and the on-again, off-again attempts to go public. The book begins and ends with the firm's efforts to go public and get greater access to capital. Most other brokerages are already publicly traded, but internecine conflict and financial turmoil always seem to prevent Goldman from joining the action. In September 1998, for instance, Goldman stunned investors when it dropped plans for a stock offering amid a plunge in the market. A management shake-up soon followed. Goldman Sachs is an intriguing history of the company that invented such financial tools as block trading, commercial paper and risk arbitrage. The book can sometimes be critical, but is largely a favourable portrait by a former employee. --Dan Ring, Amazon.com
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
A fine read about the rise and subsequent antics of a major league investment bank. (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )
Thoughtful, vivid and full of enjoyable detail. (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )
Endlich, a former vice president and trader at the bank is well placed to write a history of the institution whose rise and rise constitutes "one of the greatest financial success stories of the twentieth century." (SUNDAY TIMES )
This will be an absorbing read for anyone into the world of high finance. (IRELAND ON SUNDAY ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Thoughtful, vivid and full of enjoyable detail. (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )
Endlich, a former vice president and trader at the bank is well placed to write a history of the institution whose rise and rise constitutes "one of the greatest financial success stories of the twentieth century." (SUNDAY TIMES )
This will be an absorbing read for anyone into the world of high finance. (IRELAND ON SUNDAY ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 15, 1986, John L. Weinberg, the venerable senior partner of Goldman Sachs, had a long list of phone calls to make. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
ON WEDNESDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 15, 1986, John L. Weinberg, the venerable senior partner of Goldman Sachs, had a long list of phone calls to make. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't think anyone will be left guessing that Lisa Endlich was a very satisfied employee of Goldman Sachs! This is certainly not an objective, critical, investigative expose of Goldman. Rather, it is a subjective, friendly account of the company's admittedly very successful growth into one of the world's top investment banks. The "brilliance" of the management, the "skill" of the traders, the "undying devotion" to their customers; the superlatives go on and on. To be fair, given the company's success, the superlatives are not entirely inappropriate. However, some of Goldman's more dubious moments are almost whitewashed over. The Robt Maxwell affair? Poor Goldman was duped. The Ivan Boesky insider trading scandel? Robert Freeman was forced to make a guilty plea, etc. In the final analysis, it is not entirely sycophantic and is worth the read.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Unlike Liars Poker (in case anyone thought this might be something similar) this book does not provide a profound, humorous, ironical view of the investment banking industry. One wonders, why on earth did Endlich ever leave the firm? The book looks an application to rejoin! Boring.
By Memo London
Format:Paperback
First 31 pages, titled Road Less Travelled, gives a summary of the GS Culture of Success. Rest of the book is chronological developments of how markets have evolved, how Goldman took advantage of some of these developments and fairly uninteresting summary of historical events.
Clients come first, team culture and long term mindset when dealing with clients are Goldman's success culture according to the author. If you are looking to get a job at Goldman or want to learn about the history of market events this book deserves 3 stars, in terms of explaining the culture of success save yourself the time and investment.
If you are looking for an extraordinary book of performance and leadership and immediate applications , the 3 Laws of Performance ( number one in Wall Street Journal's business books) is an excellent alternative.
Clients come first, team culture and long term mindset when dealing with clients are Goldman's success culture according to the author. If you are looking to get a job at Goldman or want to learn about the history of market events this book deserves 3 stars, in terms of explaining the culture of success save yourself the time and investment.
If you are looking for an extraordinary book of performance and leadership and immediate applications , the 3 Laws of Performance ( number one in Wall Street Journal's business books) is an excellent alternative.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Biased but still instructive
Endlich's book chronicles the history of Goldman Sachs from its inception in 1869 until its IPO in 1999. Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2010 by Alexander Sokol
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very good book on an average bank!
This book tell's the story of Goldman Sachs, a very good book for anyone interested in investment and trading history. Read more
Published on 25 July 2000
2.0 out of 5 stars
For Students of Goldman Sachs
If you are a student of Goldman Sachs, you might want to plough through this tomb of heavily-researched Goldman history and Sachsannia. Read more
Published on 17 Nov 1999
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