The investment bank, Goldman Sachs, quite possibly the most renowned on Wall St., was rocked today by an op-ed piece in the New York Times by a resigning manager, Greg Smith. Smith claimed that the culture of the company had changed during his tenure and that employees were no longer looking out for their clients and were instead taking advantage of them. Pretty much sums up the finance industry and the economic collapse. Here are a few excerpts from what Smith wrote:
“To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way.“
“I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work.“
“It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off.“
“It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are.“
The last quote is the most important because after Goldman sent an email to all its employees basically giving lip service about how everyone cares so very deeply about their clients, the firm lost $2.15 billion in value after its stock price fell 3.4%. Oof. That’s what people need to learn. It doesn’t matter how much money you make in the short-term, if you don’t treat your customers fairly, it’s going to come back and bite you in the ass tenfold. Props to Greg Smith for having the guts to sacrifice his career and say what needed to be said. It’s a lot easier to sit back and say nothing and keep raking it in than do what’s right. If guys like him were in charge, the economy wouldn’t be in a ditch, like it was being driven by a Mets bullpen catcher.
Rainman Suite 