How Goldman Does It

Goldman Sachs has weathered the economic crisis better than any other investment bank because it perfected unusual hiring and management practices. Goldman looked to hire people from working class families with outsized ambitions, betting correctly that they would work extremely hard for the firm, and that they might have a certain level of humility. That was important for the management style it adopted in the mid-1970s, when it started using co-chairpeople to manage the firm, and even co-department heads.

A thoughtful review is Rich Bank, Poor Bank, by veteran journalist and author George Anders.

Michael Fitzgerald

Michael Fitzgerald writes about innovation and other big ideas in business for publications like the New York Times, The Economist, Fast Company, Inc. and CIO. He’s worked as a writer or editor at Red Herring, ZDNet, TechTV and Computerworld, and has received numerous awards as a writer and editor. Most recently, his piece on the hacker collective the l0pht won the 2008 award for best trade piece from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. He was also a 2007 Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science and Religion.

More from CBS News