The Partnership, Charles D. Ellis
The Partnership, Charles D. Ellis
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The Partnership
The Making of Goldman Sachs

Author: Charles D. Ellis

Narrator: Norman Dietz

Unabridged: 33 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/22/2008


Synopsis

Goldman Sachs is the most profitable and powerful investment bank in the world today. Fifty years ago, it was a marginal family firm with limited prospects. How did it ascend to leadership in Europe, Asia, North and South America; make many, many partners fabulous fortunes; and become the leader in IPOs, M&A, FX, bond dealing, stock brokerage, derivatives, hedge funds, private equity, and real estate?

As a strategy consultant to Goldman Sachs for more than thirty years, Charles D. Ellis developed close relationships with many of the firm's past and present leaders around the world. In The Partnership he probes deeply into the most important chapters in the firm's history, revealing the key events and decisions that tell the colorful, character-driven story of how Goldman Sachs became what it is today.

Ellis tells the illuminating stories of the great personalities who sowed the seeds of Goldman Sachs's success: from Sidney Weinberg, a junior high school dropout with a flair for markets; to Gus Levy, who brought a ferocious intensity to every minute of every workday; to John Whitehead, who wrote the core values that defined a culture of teamwork in serving clients; to the unpretentious John Weinberg, who was the quintessential relationship banker of his era; to Robert Rubin and Hank Paulson, who both became secretary of the treasury; to Governor Jon Corzine; and finally to Lloyd Blankfein, current CEO and chairman of Goldman Sachs.

Starting as a sole proprietorship dealing in commercial paper in the mid-nineteenth century, Goldman Sachs became an innovative underwriter, struggled to survive the crash and Depression, and came out of World War II to complete what was then the single most important transaction in Wall Street's history: Ford Motor Company's IPO. Goldman Sachs overcame a full set of dramatic perils: Penn Central's bankruptcy, Robert Maxwell's abusive frauds, and insider trading scandals. Ellis demonstrates how the firm's core values, intensive recruiting, entrepreneurial creativity, and disciplined risk taking—incorporating technology and hard work—laid the foundations, multiplied the firm's resources and profits, and magnified its power until it became today's Goldman Sachs: one of the most successful business organizations in the world.

About Charles D. Ellis

Charles D. Ellis is a consultant to large institutional investors and government agencies. For thirty years, he was a managing partner of Greenwich Associates, an international business strategy consulting firm he founded that serves virtually all the leading financial service organizations around the world. Ellis earned his M.B.A. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from New York University. He has taught investment management courses at Harvard and Yale, and he is the author of twelve books, including Capital: The Story of Long-Term Investment Excellence and Wall Street People: True Stories of Today's Masters and Moguls. Ellis has served on the boards of Harvard Business School and Phillips Exeter Academy and is currently chairman of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, a trustee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a director of Vanguard, and a trustee and chair of the investment committee at Yale University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Doug on April 29, 2010

The Economist this week has a great statement regarding GS: "When GS went public in 1999 its prospectus began: 'Our clients' interests always come first. Our experience shows that if we serve our clients well, our own success will follow.' Only the most naive investor read that as a commitment to go......more

Goodreads review by Brian on January 12, 2019

History of finance fascinates me and this book gives a great history of an important firm in our economy. It’s sad how a firm that was founded on such amazing principles has lost its way.......more

Goodreads review by Ian on December 26, 2014

Charles Ellis has written the definitive history of Goldman Sachs, relying on candid insight from dozens of the partnership's current and former leaders. In many ways the firm’s history parallels that of Wall Street, as Goldman Sachs (GS) was either a leader or near the forefront in the development......more

Goodreads review by Nick on July 02, 2010

First 1/2 was pretty good, a nice Horatio Alger story with lots of American Jewish pride. The latter half -- and especially the egregious, miserable last fourth -- paid the price for the inside story. If I wanted a firm prospectus, I'd order one. Only in the Afterwards is it revealed -- though one h......more

Goodreads review by Mike on June 29, 2009

Great history on Goldman Sachs, lots of behind the scene stories......more