goldman-sachs’ toxic culture

From the article: Exec slams Goldman Sachs and the original Goldman Sachs Op Ed in the NYT:

“I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it,” wrote Greg Smith on his “last day at Goldman Sachs,” capping 12 years with Wall Street’s gilded firm.

and

“It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off,” he wrote. “Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as ‘muppets,’ sometimes over internal e-mail.”

and

When the history books are written about Goldman Sachs, they may reflect that the current chief executive officer, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the president, Gary D. Cohn, lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch. I truly believe that this decline in the firm’s moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival.

To be fair, here is part of Goldman Sachs response:

In a company of our size, it is not shocking that some people could feel disgruntled. But that does not and should not represent our firm of more than 30,000 people. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. But, it is unfortunate that an individual opinion about Goldman Sachs is amplified in a newspaper and speaks louder than the regular, detailed and intensive feedback you have provided the firm and independent, public surveys of workplace environments.

While we expect you find the words you read today foreign from your own day-to-day experiences, we wanted to remind you what we, as a firm – individually and collectively – think about Goldman Sachs and our client-driven culture.

 

Toxic cultures are bad. Don’t talk bad about your clients. Business 101 stuff.

David – Like a Boss

David Stagg – the last hour of the last day and he is still teaching. That’s class.

Here is the recommendation for David that I wrote on his LinkedIn:

“David is ambitious, talented, smart as all get out, and most importantly a HARD WORKER. He understood that hard work was needed to take care of our clients when he joined Schipul as a graphic artist. And it didn’t take us long to see his leadership potential and he was quickly promoted to manager, and then creative director.

If David says it’s going to get done, it will get done. A strength that I greatly appreciated as a CEO who travels a lot. I didn’t have to call and check, if David was on it, David was on it and it got done.

David has skillfully managed a team of up to 10 people at a time handling 60 to 70 projects and ongoing support call-ins from over 400 clients. To do this he motivates his people, he listens to them, and wears many hats. He also believes in processes improvement and was instrumental in implementing our CRM system to improve customer satisfaction.

David has guided the look and feel of the “Schipul” and the “Tendenci” brands during his tenure here working closely with our communications department. He fights for the brand as a great brand advocate should. Yet also realizes that this is a business and sometimes compromise is required.

From 2010 to 2011 our company grew profitably over 20% to over 3M in revenue. Without the strong leadership and focus of David and his team’s productivity this would not have been possible. Growth required the entire company functioning as one unit, but without any one part it would not have been possible. David was a huge part of the solution that led us to a successful year.

David is a strong leader who realizes it takes a team to achieve success. He knows that clients are part of that team. And that true leadership is to engage the stakeholders, to work with and guide and train to produce the best results for the client and for the bottom line both. Not an easy task. David can do it.

I strongly recommend David Stagg. If you need further information feel free to contact me directly for a personal reference for David. ~Ed” February 17, 2012

vision matters

Having a vision for a company matters. There has been a direct correlation at Schipul between having a clear vision that I can articulate and being profitable.

I can’t fully explain it.

We have to believe in something. Feel free to hold me accountable as well. My company vision is

“To connect and organize the world’s people. Do good.”

The vision and mission are the job of the leader. This is not something you can delegate to a committee.

The photo above if of a local entrepreneur who runs The Black Sheep Agency PR Firm in Houston. (We had to tip the waiter extra so we could write on the napkin…)

GM fixes it – “defined benefit plans” put the obligation on some random person in the future

A bold step for GM fixing legacy pension obligations.

It boils down to this – “defined benefit plans” put the obligation on some random person in the future. “Defined contributions”, even with partial matching percentages from corporations (funded AT THAT TIME) is the only logical solution.

The hybrid “let’s keep some defined benefit and have this portion be “defined” contribution” is just wishful thinking from a bygone era. The irony being that the majority of wealth is controlled by the Boomers, who are both the investors demanding the return on the investment and at the same time demanding the correction in unfunded pensions.

Or to put it another way, if you give people free money they will take it. You can’t “earn” a defined benefit. You can only “earn” a defined contribution. Even if matched. And when the company can’t sustain it, suddenly the taxpayer is on the hook? Baroo?

katie’s last day at schipul

[This post was written on December 16 and I never hit publish. I removed some of the mushy stuff. And as I have said many times "bad news fast" so let me say first that I regret the chaos of Katie's last day. I'll make it up to you Katie.]

Some people are just more difficult than others. And some people are REALLY more difficult than others.

Shut up. I’m not talking about myself.

I’m talking about Katie. Katie Laird. And I’m writing this on the last day she works for me. And that is sad for me as a person who will miss walking in to her office and rambling on about everything from Edward Bernays, to the latest Dan Keeney email that even we think is perhaps too full of candor, to our PR efforts to help April and the Silicon Valley office, or to discuss our latest ideas to save the cheerleader or at least save the world through Netsquared.

It is also a happy time for me because I love Katie in one of the 10,000 ways a person can love. And “love” isn’t a word I use without thought. Nope, this lady is unique. She is taking the next step in her mission and vision and I respect that. Even if I did manage to get us locked out on the 15th floor roof of our building on her last day because I wanted to say goodbye without 1000 interruptions that go with running a growing business.

Aaron hired Katie as a graphic artist ‘back in the day’. Kelly was our Communications Director at the time. Kelly was amazing of course, as she still is and I think she is even teaching the APR courses at PRSA Houston. When Kelly left, Katie proactively observed the (numerous) balls I was dropping and, well, I’m not even sure if she asked. She just did. She picked up the reins and was doing our PR in addition to her responsibilities as a designer. I’m not sure how it happened. That’s what happens with high performance individuals I have learned. Sometimes they run over you to achieve what is ultimately in your best interest as a leader and what is in the best interest of the company and the tribe. Katie did.

And Katie, or @happykatie as so many call her, did that. She just DID. I’m not even sure that I, as the CEO, had a vote in it. She is a force of nature.

Keep in mind this is a woman is a cupcake expert, a Nintendo gamer, a pilot (yes, like real airplanes), a Mom to an amazing little girl named Ella, a philanthropist who gives of her time and money to so many different causes. It’s kind of like shaking hands with a beautiful tornado. But not to worry, Katie is almost always in a great mood. (A desirable characteristic when it comes to tornados from Kansas.)

I have given so many talks over the last 6 years where not only the slide deck, but the research behind the slide deck, was done by Katie. She can meet with me for 10 minutes, ask a few questions, and two days later I have a presentation deck that makes me look like a hero presenting to a national section of PRSA in New York. She is that good. That and Katie herself is an accomplished and sought after public speaker in her own right. Check out Katie’s slideshare here. I have no doubt her public speaking requests will continue and surpass mine in the near future. She rocks as a speaker.

And OK, I admit it. It doesn’t hurt that Katie is the founder of Houston Dr. Sketchy’s. Always a great excuse to spend a Sunday afternoon at AvantGarden drinking wine and photographing models and friends. (Unless she revokes my “archivist” privileges, I know I’ll get to see her and Adam, and sometimes Ella, at least once a month.)

There is great joy in seeing people like Katie grow. Visiting her in the hospital when Ella was born. Jumping on an airplane to San Francisco for a one day trip with little notice to find out about this TechSoup Netsquared thing. Taking photos on the roof to show off the latest hand crafted scarf she made. Trying different advertising and acknowledging what fails, and trying again, and celebrating what succeeds knowing it is bringing in leads that become clients. To not get her a band aid, but instead say “wait, let me take a photo” when she skinned her knee riding a plasma car down the top of the parking garage. To enjoy those experiences with a co-worker you have to care. And I do. I care very much and to care it becomes personal. And Katie is leaving after over six years. And that brings a sense of loss.

Did I mention she planned and ran SchipulCon 2011 this year? Without Katie we would not have seen Dries and Matt on the stage together. It was a team effort, but she was the team leader for the whole event. (and a shout out to David and Al for the idea and the vid of course.)

And then Katie had me roasted. Very funny. Very Katie.

I know I am missing a ton of Katie’s accomplishments. And memories she created. She has been the driving force for the Schipul and Tendenci brands for years. So much so that she rejected a blog post I wanted to put on the Schipul blog because it wasn’t “on message.” (Her rejection notice/email said something about “snarky” but I’m not sure what her point was #heh). In fact I’m posting this on my personal blog and linking to it because I know Katie wouldn’t think this blog post was “on message with the brand” either. She is a true brand steward. She cares about her work.

I’m proud of Katie in that she is following her passion and going after what, after much introspection, she feels is the best next step for her.

As a CEO, you always feel a bit like a failure when you lose a top performer. It means that you didn’t grow the company fast enough to keep them challenged. Or you didn’t increase profits enough to increase their compensation commensurate with their new skills, abilities, knowledge and mostly the RESULTS they produce for the company. And the next person who tells me “don’t take it personal” gets bonked on the head by Ded Bob from the RenFest because it means they have never walked a mile in the shoes of a company founder. I’m not sure I would even want to be a person who didn’t feel the human loss as well as the professional loss when a high performer leaves the company.

Make no mistake, this is a loss for Schipul Technologies Inc. And a huge gain for my friend Jay Steinfeld, the CEO of Blinds.com where Katie is going. Jay, you don’t just owe me a beer. No sir. This calls for something more like a bottle of Opus One. But I can’t fault your choice of talent. You have excellent taste indeed.

Take care of Katie for me please. She rocks.

deadlines

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” – Douglas Adams