Goldman Sachs brings you inside the rarefied boardrooms of one of the most secretive Wall Street banking giants. Begun by a German immigrant in the late 1800s as a small family-run business, Goldman Sachs rose to become the world's top investment bank in the 1990s, even without selling stock to the public. It attracted some of the best talent in the business and cultivated an image of superiority and exclusivity. "The Goldman Sachs mystique was born of secrecy and success. Nothing like it exists on Wall Street," writes the author, Lisa Endlich, a former vice president at the firm. But behind that mystique lie tales of being swindled by British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, multimillion-dollar losses on bad trades, and the on-again, off-again attempts to go public. The book begins and ends with the firm's efforts to go public and get greater access to capital. Most other brokerages are already publicly traded, but internecine conflict and financial turmoil always seem to prevent Goldman from joining the action. In September 1998, for instance, Goldman stunned investors when it dropped plans for a stock offering amid a plunge in the market. A management shakeup soon followed. Goldman Sachs is an intriguing history of the company that invented such financial tools as block trading, commercial paper, and risk arbitrage. The book can sometimes be critical, but is largely a favorable portrait by a former employee. --Dan Ring

Goldman Sachs, the nation's leading investment firm, with a solid-gold reputation and a first-class list of clients, began as a family business in a lower Manhattan basement in 1869. The secrets behind the remarkable success of Goldman Sachs since then are revealed in unprecedented depth in this fascinating and authoritative narrative history of the firm.

Former Goldman Sachs vice president Lisa Endlich draws on her insider's knowledge and access to all levels of management to bring to life a unique company that has long held its mystique intact. The most stunning accomplishments in modern American finance are explored through the story of how Goldman Sachs reached its summit.

Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success provides a rare and revealing look inside an institution -- until recently the last private partnership on Wall Street -- and inside the financial world at its highest levels. Included here, in a new chapter, is a first look at the history behind the firm's landmark initial public offering.

If you liked reading books on the history of finance, I think this is worth the read: it definitely gives you some insight on how Goldman, the most prestigious investment bank since the mid 80's is run, and a decent view on how it shifted from a firm build on strong client relationships, lost in a sea of bigger fish, to a powerful sales and trading behemoth that was unmatched in any of its focus areas.

If you are looking for a broader view of financial history, however, this is not it. It's very Goldman focused (and I found a bit slow at the start), and delves more in depth on the trading side that came to dominate in the 90s, which I would guess is because that is where the author came from. It does do a good job of explaining the tension between bankers and traders, but it doesn't have the sheer balance between deifying its subject and history like The House of Morgan or the entertainment value of Liar's Poker. As a result, if I didn't have much background in financial markets, I would find it harder to read as the book would seem to jump around (and need more context than it gives).

Unlike Morgan, Goldman wasn't as dominant as it is today until more recent history (the 80s), so I found it wasn't as interesting to learn about Goldman's past in such detail, I would have rather seen a more personal account in the boom years, or a more financial markets history focus at the beginning to balance out the fact Goldman wasn't always the leader. As the book moves on to the 90s, however, I think she does do a great job of explaining the lessons learned at Goldman in the early 90s around risk management, which you see in it's (at least relative) financial discipline as compared to its peers. The seeds planted by the capital crisis in 1994 at Goldman definitely did reap rewards as Goldman built a much stronger set of risk management controls than its peers, allowing it to better navigate the sub-prime crisis it arguably helped create. Unfortunately I felt there were still gaps in the Goldman corporate strategy in the book, as some of analysis around senior staff and their actions appeared to be more hearsay-type information or speculation. It would have been great to have more C-level accounts of how Goldman worked, although it is well known that Goldman is notoriously clandestine about its inner workings.

I regarded the book as a story about risk, and how it evolved over time. I wonder how GS founders would view the AIG meltdown.

I really wasn't sure what to expect from this book judging by the sub title of this book; "The Culture of Success." I sort of went in expecting something about how Goldman Sachs' culture was superior to others in a very detailed manner. That's really not what this book was; this was basically a pretty broad overview of the Goldman Sachs history. In retrospect I think I preferred it to be the firm's history than what I had initially thought it was would be. It does discuss how important culture was to the firms development though, so that was in the book, but it was more of a historical perspective overall.

The author takes you back to the beginning on how the firm began by running promissory notes in the late 1800's in New York. I thought this was fascinating since I knew next to nothing about the firm before delving into this book. Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much, it was a wealth of new information for me. I thought Lisa Endlich did an excellent job in bringing the reader through the history. She brought us through the firm's humble beginnings all the way to the firms IPO in the late 90's when it was considered one of the most dominant power houses in the financial world.

One of the parts that I found to be the most interesting was some of the family history concerning the Goldman's and the Sachs' during the great depression and moving into World War II. The Goldman in one of the top positions at that time was extremely proud of being a German Jew and longed to retire back to Germany. Unfortunately history would not make this a pleasant situation since shortly after he returned to Germany Adolf Hitler was named Der Fuhrer. I couldn't help but feel bad for the man since, from what Lisa reports, he embodied a lot of elements that Hitler would respect in a person. Pride for ones homeland being the primary factor for what is important to Hitler. This is made very clear to anyone who sits down and actually reads "Mein Kampf." Goldman had to return to the U.S. quite disillusioned with everything.

For those interested in the history of markets the book also covers the time frame when the American firms tried to enter into the European market and all the difficulty that came from that. In the 1980's there were multiple scandals with traders, some of which hit home to the firm. She brings us through all the agonizing hardships and gives a pretty interesting inside look into the leaders at the time. It was interesting to note that Goldman Sachs was usually one of the last firms to make any move it deemed risky, but would let other firms go in and make mistakes. However, this kind of an attitude would have to change over time as the markets became even more competitive. The book finally closes with the discussions about Goldman Sachs issuing its first IPO (Initial Public Offering). This was a huge thing for a firm that had lasted as long as just a partnership. You get an inside look into the board meetings and what was going through the partners' heads during this major event in the company's life.

There isn't as much focus on the technical financial workings of Goldman Sachs, a few figures are quoted here and there. I did find some of the history here interesting, especially about the creation of Block Trading and Hedge Funds. These are things that are used throughout the market place today. However, if you're looking for some deeper financial workings on Goldman Sachs this isn't the book you want to pick up.

I thought this was a great read by the time I finished. I found it incredibly fascinating to see this firm develop throughout the years and didn't realize the immense impact it had on the market place. Some of the language use is great because it tells some of the more humorous parts, such as in the 1980's how investment bankers/traders were the most hated people in the country, lower than lawyers! I thought some of these little anecdotes were brilliant to include because it gave a slightly lighter mood to a read that could have been overly dry. I'll admit that this isn't a book that most lay readers will pick up, only those of us who are in the economics, business or investment fields. Sure some lay people may enjoy it, but I can't ignore the fact it's for a fairly specialized audience. I definitely recommend this if you're interested in reading a broad overview of the firm and its history since its inception.

We all know last year profits at Goldman Sachs and the Big fat bonuses expected for its employees to receive. What is it that these guys do to obtain such level of profits?, well that was the reason to read this book. I never thought this book would be that interesting, the whole history of the Goldman and the Sachs, both jewish immigrants families, and the following consolidation of the firm along the years, its ups and downs, make this book an easy reading.

The idea for me was also to understand a little about investment banking and other concepts such as equity trading, long term capital management and others. To tell you the truth, I need further reading but the spark is there and I want to learn more of this subject. I cannot finish this review by saying that also in this book you learn some of the aspects of running this big firm and few lessons of experience by some of the best in this field like Sidney Weinberg and Robert Rubin, both pillars of a company that now may be called a culture of success.

This is the firm that learns. From its origins as a two person broker of IOUs in 1862 to its position today as the world's dominant player in trading, risk management and arbitrage, Goldman Sachs has managed the unthinkable in the world of finance: attaining mind-bending levels of profit growth over a century and a half while maintaining a mythical mystique based on a corporate culture of integrity, intelligence, and humility. It's an improbable feat at best. But after all probability is Goldman's business--measuring it, defying it, and reading into it things that others can't.

So what is the secret? How is it that one firm can attract the most brilliant minds in finance, force them into a quasi-military commitment of time and mental energy, and organize that brainpower into a unified profit machine? Many have conjectured, more have envied, but noone on the outside can provide any more than idle opinion.

Luckily for the readers of "Goldman Sachs: A Culture of Excellence", they have in author Lisa Endlich a docent of matchless qualifications. A former VP in foreign exchange at the firm, she provides an insider's view that's not a tell all. She's writes well, in a style that honors the Goldman ethos--thorough, absorbing, and critical in the academic sense. While examining the birth and development of each of Goldman's divisions starting with commercial paper, she offers up a rich education in the operations of i-banking and trading for anyone inclined to read in detail.

And for the rest of us, there's still plenty. Endlich starts from the premise that Goldman Sachs is all about its people, and she stays consistent throughout. From its inception as a family firm run by Marcus Goldman and his son-in-law Sam Sachs, through its early years as banker to the robber barons, the long reign of the Weinberg family, its reinvention as a trading power and the tenure of master trader Gus Levy and Uber banker John Whitehead, and on into the nineties and the ascendancy of Rubin, Friedman, Paulson, Corzine, and Blankfein, Endlich provides nuanced and sympathetic portraits of brilliant, complex men whose leadership skills are surpassed only by an ability to place personal ego second to the needs of the team.

And that, Endlich suggests, is the big secret. That's what makes Goldman so exclusive. The firm absorbs those with superior intelligence who subsume personal need to propel the greater glory of the collective. It's a major irony in one of the prime movers of capitalistic society, but its borne out empirically by the story Endlich tells.

Throughout its history Goldman has demonstrated time and again an insatiable institutional desire to win, and to accomplish that by embracing change. Goldman created the commercial paper market, and went on to become a pioneer in investment banking, risk arbitrage, and trading. All along Goldman, the whole organism, developed an intuitive feel for risk and a collaborative approach to deal making that helped it emerge on top time and again. And since its decision to go public, the action that Endlich builds her book around, its business model has only refined and improved.

There may be those in the know who believe that the ascendancy of hedge funds and the powerful private equity barons has rendered Goldman's model obsolete. There are others who take issue with aspects of the firm's trading philosophy. Only time will tell whether the naysayers views on the subject have merit. But Goldman has left armies of detractors in the dust for decades now. Bet against it at your own peril.