Book review: The Partnership

Just finished reading a newish book ; The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs, written by Charles D. Ellis. It is the most enjoyable business book that I have read so far in my - admittedly young - life. I found the book to be very engaging and instructive not only to investment bankers and potential investment bankers, but also to anyone interested in building a knowledge based organisation. Some of the reasons I enjoyed reading the book include:

Thematic arrangements: this just sealed it for me. I don’t know what goes through business writers' minds that make them organise books in chronological fashion. I am tired of reading books with arrangements such as "the Early Years: 1870-1900", "Dawn of a new century: 1900-1920". I honestly find this practice quite unhelpful as few lessons in business - as in life generally - are chronological in nature. Lessons - at least the valuable ones - tend to be in themes that cut across various years and they should be treated in a coherent manner. The author had the foresight to group the chapters around themes that have defined Goldman Sachs' success with chapters such as "Getting Great at selling": that describes how Goldman Sachs built a vibrant institutional sales force over a few decades. While in the “Innocents Abroad” chapter: the author traced Goldman Sachs' efforts to expand internationally and the successes and interim failures that the firm experienced on the way to its current global reach and dominance.

Informed 3rd party view: a lot of similar books written recently have been from ex-employees of the subject companies. These employees broadly tend to either want to sing the praises of their former employers or bust their bubbles. These viewpoints inevitably tend to colour the books that they author. The author of this book has the double privileges of inside knowledge and objectivity that come from having an extensive and long lasting strategy consulting relationship with his subject, Goldman Sachs. I believe this unique perspective has resulted in a book that is neither adulatory nor vindictive in its tone and approach.

It is not an epic saga: authors of some of the books that I have read on the history of companies tend to view their brief as an invitation to spin colourful stories about larger than life characters and forget that readers are actually supposed to learn something from buying the book. The Partnership has its fair share of vivid descriptions of powerful personalities but the author does not lose sight of the broader, more important objective of providing readers with positive case studies to ensure they learn from reading the book.

The book has not only increased my knowledge of investment banking and financial markets, it has more importantly given me some insights into the steps that can help an organisation achieve greatness. I would give the book a 5/5 rating and advice anyone with some time on his hands and money in his pocket to go grab a copy now!.