Team+6+-+Online+Assignment+-+May+13th

__Team 6 - Online Assignment - May 13th__

**1. What is your topic? (per chapter title)** Chapter 7 - Rewards and Performance Management **2. What company are you assessing as consultants?** Goldman Sachs **3. Provide some background information about the business (just start on it but not due until final project is due, as is the case with numbers 6 and 7)** Goldman Sachs is an American investment banking and securities firm that was founded in 1869. They are currently a primary dealer in the United States Treasury security market. The company engages in global investment banking, securities investment mangement, proprietary trading, private equity deals, and other financial services. Goldman Sachs also provides mergers and acquistions advice, underwriting services, asset managment, and prime brokerage to its clients, which includes corporations, governments, and individuals. **__Goldman Sachs' Business Principles:__** **Our clients' interests always come first.** Our experience shows that if we serve our clients well, our own success will follow. **Our assets are our people, capital and reputation.** If any of these is ever diminished, the last is the most difficult to restore. We are dedicated to complying fully with the letter and spirit of the laws, rules and ethical principles that govern us. Our continued success depends upon unswerving adherence to this standard. **Our goal is to provide superior returns to our shareholders.** Profitability is critical to achieving superior returns, building our capital, and attracting and keeping our best people. Significant employee stock ownership aligns the interests of our employees and our shareholders. **We take great pride in the professional quality of our work.** We have an uncompromising determination to achieve excellence in everything we undertake. Though we may be involved in a wide variety and heavy volume of activity, we would, if it came to a choice, rather be best than biggest. **We stress creativity and imagination in everything we do.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">While recognizing that the old way may still be the best way, we constantly strive to find a better solution to a client's problems. We pride ourselves on having pioneered many of the practices and techniques that have become standard in the industry. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**We make an unusual effort to identify and recruit the very best person for every job.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Although our activities are measured in billions of dollars, we select our people one by one. In a service business, we know that without the best people, we cannot be the best firm. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**We offer our people the opportunity to move ahead more rapidly than is possible at most other places.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Advancement depends on merit and we have yet to find the limits to the responsibility our best people are able to assume. For us to be successful, our men and women must reflect the diversity of the communities and cultures in which we operate. That means we must attract, retain and motivate people from many backgrounds and perspectives. Being diverse is not optional; it is what we must be. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**We stress teamwork in everything we do.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">While individual creativity is always encouraged, we have found that team effort often produces the best results. We have no room for those who put their personal interests ahead of the interests of the firm and its clients. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**The dedication of our people** to the firm and the intense effort they give their jobs are greater than one finds in most other organizations. We think that this is an important part of our success. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**We consider our size an asset that we try hard to preserve.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">We want to be big enough to undertake the largest project that any of our clients could contemplate, yet small enough to maintain the loyalty, the intimacy and the esprit de corps that we all treasure and that contribute greatly to our success. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**We constantly strive to anticipate the rapidly changing needs of our clients and to develop new services to meet those needs.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">We know that the world of finance will not stand still and that complacency can lead to extinction. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**We regularly receive confidential information as part of our normal client relationships.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">To breach a confidence or to use confidential information improperly or carelessly would be unthinkable. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**Our business is highly competitive, and we aggressively seek to expand our client relationships.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">However, we must always be fair competitors and must never denigrate other firms. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**Integrity and honesty are at the heart of our business.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">We expect our people to maintain high ethical standards in everything they do, both in their work for the firm and in their personal lives. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**4. What topics/theories will you cover to explain the interesting/challenging/successful** **phenomenon going on in the company?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**__Benefits of working and succeeding at Goldman Sachs:__** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**Salary and Bonuses:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**Is comprimised of...** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">-Annual base salary <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">-Annual year-end bonus (equity award program) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">-Certain local allowances <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**Is determined by...** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">-Firm's performance <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">-Performance of individual divisions and business areas <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">-Performance of each employee in his or her own role <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">-External and internal compensation benchmarks <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">-Firm's incentive goals for individual employees <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">-Ideas on how the company can improve or provide even more incentives based on individual performances. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**5. Who will be responsible for discussing what theories?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Jen/Emily - motivation and rewards <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Peter/Jedd - Performance management <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Crystal/Emily/Jen - Performance appraisal <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Crystal - intrinsic and extrinsic rewards <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**Meeting Details:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**a) How often will you meet as previously decided?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Once-twice a week <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**b) Who will take on what roll or do what tasks for the group?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Peter - power point <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Jen - info research <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Emily - info research <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Jedd - video <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Crystal - info research <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">**c) What things are left to do as a group?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Skit and video, research, interview, powerpoint.