Greg Smith on Goldman Sachs’s culture

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Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith resigned via an article in the New York Times, on March 14:

It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients. [...] I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years.


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





The article was only the prelude to a book [affiliate link] that has come out on Oct 22. So you can see that Greg Smith was after publicity when he revealed some of the inner workings of the notoriously secretive Goldman Sachs. But he also sounds believable when he says that he cares about the company and that he saw going public as the only way of improving things. The manner in which Goldman Sachs attacks him only increases his credibility.

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