Corporate Culture - What makes a global investment bank different from another?
Hey guys,
A question about corporate culture and differences between investment banks.
Up until the 1980s every major investment bank was quite unique given that it mostly operated in its home country and its management had a very similar background.
Nowadays however all the major investment banks are very globalised and operate in many countries around the world, so don't differentiate themselves as much as they used to. What then makes a bank different from another, today? Corporate culture surely differs from bank to bank, but which corporate cultures do banks have and why/how are these different? I can surely imagine, for example, Goldman Sachs to be aggressive and UBS, on the other hand, to bo more "swiss-like" and value processes and attention to detail, but I'm sure there's more to it...
Also, is there a specific model/culture which proved to be more successful than others (particularily in delivering IBD results to clients)?
Thanks!
Who knows the differences (i.e. culture, strengths, and weaknesses) among Investment Banks? (Originally Posted: 12/03/2013)
I am having a hard time trying to figure out distinct differences between IB firms JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Credit Suisse. Can anyone give me there own take if they have worked at these specific firms or know "someone" who has? I am specifically looking for a take on any positives or negatives of the culture of the firms. Thanks!
If you're worried about culture, work at a boutique.
I am not worried. I just want to be able to answer when/if they ask the differences between themselves and other firms.
firm culture exists to an extent, but frankly group culture is more important. I'd say the difference between say, JPM and BAML as a whole is less than the difference between baml TMT vs. BAML Sponsors just to give an example.
Thanks for the response. This definitely makes sense.
No problem. That said though, banks do pride themselves on various things/capabilities. Examples:
GS - smartest guys Citi - international presence JPM/BAML/Citi - Diverse offerings (retail, commercial, corporate banking, treasury services, IBD, private wealth) and the synergies that offers
best to talk to people in the bank and ask how they differentiate themselves. My rule is that that if you give your answer to 'why BB XYZ' and the interviewer can say "you also just described banks BB ABC and BB DEF", then you don't have a good answer.
second this, group culture is much more pervasive than firm culture
if you are looking to understand firm culture for interviews, reviewing recent deals and league tables (by product area) is time well spent. don't need to know everything, better to have 2-3 simple, convincing points
This is for Europe and it is based on what I have been told during interviews and what I have directly experienced during an internship.
GS: team culture. People are super supportive with other GS colleage while are aggressive and competitive with people outside of the bank. JPM: people tend to compete also with other JPM colleagues and the culture tends to be aggressive. MS: similar to GS but a little bit more laid back with people outside of the company.
Very helpful!
IB Culture - Structured/stiff culture? (Originally Posted: 09/18/2009)
Which IB has the most structured/ stiff culture?
goldman, blackstone
Merill Lynch is/was pretty horrible.
"Cowards die a thousand deaths, but the brave only one," Bill Shakespeare
^It definitely varies from group to group. I will say that most Goldman guys I've met have been pretty stiff but the BX guys from one group were extremely cool and joked around a lot.
Which group?
I can assure you that he's not talking about PE
BX restructuring group has a very good culture. people are very chill yet dead serious (and mad good) when it comes to getting their deals completed.
^Yep London hit it on the head -- restructuring in NYC. Even though they traditionally only recruit at Harvard/Wharton the two guys stopped by to put on a small presentation for my school.
London don't you work for BX restructuring in NYC? If you know these guys you'll know exactly who I'm talking about haha
Does your company culture vary from location to location for IBD?? (Originally Posted: 05/12/2009)
I said that it does from one office to the next for the same division (IBD, PWM, S&T etc.) when asking an interviewer a question and he seemed to yell at me/get defensive. He said the company culture is the exact same regardless of the location. I don't understand how the company culture can't differ from one location to the next......
an interviewer "yelled" at you?
Yeah he kind of yelled at me. Something along the lines of, "No, you see company culture does not change from office to office. We provide the same exact level of service Chicago and New York provide. The only difference is that the people are different so the implementation is different."
I was kind of taken back for a second. I didn't make it sound at all like this office was in any way less productive/effective than any other. I just wanted to know how the culture differed in this particular office than, say, NYC headquarters. The company culture stuff on the website is just window dressing. I was attempting to find what the interviewer thought about the culture in his office.
This was with an MD for a top BB too, making it all the more weird...
sounds like your PB interview went excellent... He obv took it the wrong way, so maybe try and clear it up?
Don't worry, the other aspects of the interview went great. He actually knew the guys at the previous BB I used to work for (Yikes!). That can be a bad thing considering I did not get an offer from the previous BB, but this guy has better things to do than snoop around for feedback on how I did last year.
He actually thanked me for asking him a different question so I guess it evened itself out. I also asked some questions that clearly showed I know how the industry works and he liked that. The culture question must have been a small thing that rubbed him the wrong way, but it's not like he flipped out. Oh well, I think it went good overall though.
I work at an office other than the HQ and definitely notice a difference between our cultures but it would depend on the person running the office. For example, our group head started as an analyst in our office and has never worked at our HQ so we are quite different in most aspects (good and bad). However I have friends in our other regional offices and from what they say, it seems their culture is quite similar to our HQ due to their group head starting at a different office / firm.
he definitely took you question the wrong way. He probably thought you asked if the qualities are different
@OP, you clearly have a conception on how the interview went. No need to deny on the board you did poorly.
No, Classic, I don't think that was the case. As for the actual "interview," as in when he asks me questions, I personally think I did very well. In fact, I think I will get the offer by this Friday.
He thought I had good knowledge of the industry given that my past internship experience was also in PWM. The second interviewer also appreciated that I asked him a lot of questions and that I knew generally how the Private Banking business works.
Must have been tough to "generally know how the private business works."
Cultures are different, not sure about chicago v ny, but ny vs la or ny vs tx etc... The company culture per say wont be different but people's attitudes/way of doing things will be. Its inherent, otherwise we'd all be the same. Levels of service arent cultural.
Different cultures in IB (Originally Posted: 08/28/2010)
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First, lets not use any derogatory terms; there is a good chance that those "curries" might end up sitting right next to you and those "chinamen" might become your biggest clients...
Being a member of one of your two well-defined categories, I think it is because people from such cultures prefer a more traditional professional path such as engineering or medical. Finance has always been a stronger arena in the west and only with time will we see a greater influx of Asian/Middle Eastern cultures.
Personally, I am brown (like UPS) and was also a "superstar" eating calculus for breakfast, but...I assimilated and went against the traditions of my culture and joined banking. We might be outnumbered sir but being the only curry at a berger buffet has its advantages ;)
Also, dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.
+1 for the Lebowski reference.
isn't wall street filled with asians? asians in ibanking and asians in quant roles (especially quant roles!). On the Upper East Side, white people make over 90% of the residents and asians come in second after that.
You probably dont see too many of them in management/partner roles because of the race thing -- office politics plays a role in this. but they still do better than the asian guys who went to harvard law, landed a biglaw gig, then get thrown out after 5 years with 0% of EVER making partner.
Was waiting for that or shut the fuck up, Donny.
How come there aren't a lot of fatties on wall street?
Stress helps keep the weight off.
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I think the language becomes an issue. I'm in my 2nd week of b-school and at a recent BB meet and greet, asians made up a good percentage of the audience. However, only a few of them spoke proper english. There is no way you're going to get a banking job if you cant make things plural and your "l's" turn into "r's". Same with the Indians and their "w" to "v" conversion. The ones who make it sound no different on the phone than Dan Smith from white bread USA. Especially at the associate level, those doing the hiring need to think they can eventually put you in front of a client. The CEO of XYZ does not want to hear "herro" when he picks up the phone and "vwat" when you ask a question.
Our school offers "accent correction" for this very issue so I'm interested to see how many undergo a significant change.
LOL. What school do you go to?
^^^^This post reminds me of the lil asian guy singing I BERIEVE I CAN FRY at kareoke last week.
If you lack social skills and business etiquette you arent going to make MD, this applies to all ethnic groups. Plus people from China have breath that smells like a baby shitting out of a dogs ass.
Who the fuck used "Chinamen" anymore. That is a 1950's thing. It is also the weakest racial slur ever.
Didn't we establish that Gloomberg is Indian? Whats with the Asian hate going on.
There are two types of Asian people. Ones that grew up here and ones that came here from other countries. The ones that grew up here have no issues getting into banking. The ones that require sponsorship and have heavy accents find it very hard. FO investment banking doesn't need to sponsor foreign people to fill the ranks.
In addition, look at the values. Chinese, Indian, all a value sciences. Heavy math, physics, shit like that. What gets you into banking? High GPA from an Ivy school and playing LAX. You could be baby Einstein and would get passed over by prep school Duke LAX. Sorry but true. Being a good banker means knowing how to interview, make people like you and kick ass in excel. That is about it.
This is a pretty good explanation. Additionally, when I was in China a few years ago for a study abroad, most of the students I hung out with, who planned to go to the US to get advanced degrees, also planned on coming back. Culturally, it was "noble" for them to acquire the best education they could get and then come back to China to put it to use...so most of them planned on doing that. Obviously that is somewhat anecdotal, but worth considering.
Regards
I had some Chinese fob from Columbia interview for an internship at my startup. I couldnt understand half the shit he said I felt so bad for the guy as he was visibly nervous.
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Except perhaps in the NY/NJ/CT area, most Asian American parents know very little about what banking is as a career. There is a lack of role models in the community. On the other hand, there are plenty of role models in medicine and they know very well what medicine is as a career. As the result, there is a tendency for the Asian American parents to push their kids into medicine. That is beginning to change though. In my former neighborhood, the only two Asian American kids who went to Harvard in recent years both got into banking, and the parents in that neighborhood began to think those two Harvard kids must know something they don't know and perhaps banking is indeed a better career option than medicine.
At least in my group, about 2/3 of incoming analysts and associates are either Indian or Chinese. So, I'm not sure what "street" the OP is talking about.
Where I notice the under-representation is at the senior levels. At least in IB, I don't notice many MD's named Chang or Patel.
^ yea you're more likely to find chang and patel MDs in the HF world
really robes? in quant roles?
"what gets you into banking? High GPA from an Ivy school and playing LAX. You could be baby Einstein and would get passed over by prep school Duke LAX. Sorry but true. Being a good banker means knowing how to interview, make people like you and kick ass in excel. That is about it."
Truest words ever spoken. Lax can be substituted for tennis, squash, and crew though. Not necessarily only Ivies ....
Yeah, any preppy sport or NCAA sport will do. I just use LAX because of my never ending frat boy wanna be regrets lol.
The incoming class for my BB is almost half Asian (very few Indians though, probably an outlier year).
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