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| Jon Macaskill is one of the leading capital markets and derivatives journalists, with over 20 years’ experience covering financial markets from London and New York. Most recently he worked at one of the biggest global investment banks |
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Two of the banks that most zealously promoted the unique nature of their culture were the two that had the highest level of employee share ownership: Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.
Bear Stearns was never able to shake its image as a firm of scrappy bond traders where sharp elbows were the main means of advancement.
But Lehman managed to convince both the bulk of its employees and much of the outside world that it had developed a culture to rival that of industry leader Goldman Sachs.
Lehman relentlessly promoted its One Firm mantra and pioneered such gimmicks as pasting the elevators at its New York headquarters with charts of its share price – at least until its stock collapsed.
Lehman and Bear are gone but Goldman still dominates the revenue rankings, and rivals remain obsessed with fostering a Goldman-style culture.
