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The inside story of one of the world?s most powerful financial Institutions

Now with a new foreword and final chapter, The Partnership chronicles the most important periods in Goldman Sachs?s history and the individuals who built one of the world?s largest investment banks. Charles D. Ellis, who worked as a strategy consultant to Goldman Sachs for more than thirty years, reveals the secrets behind the firm?s continued success through many life-threatening changes. Disgraced and nearly destroyed in 1929, Goldman Sachs limped along as a break-even operation through the Depression and WWII. But with only one special service and one improbable banker, it began the stage-by-stage rise that took the firm to global leadership, even in the face of the world-wide credit crisis.

It has long been assumed that, in the development of any organization, the time for entrepreneurial activity is right at the beginning. Once an organization is established, qualities that were virtues in the organization’s start-up and early stages can become vices, and the entrepreneurial founders must cede control to professional managers who can nurture the fruits of their original vision more efficiently.

One unintended consequence of this assumption is that large, established organizations tend to be entrepreneur-free zones. Entrepreneurial thinking is tacitly discouraged because it can create novelty, and novelty is a threat to established organizations with large market shares.

Re-entrepreneuring argues that organizations must revive the entrepreneurial out-look of their founders in order to survive in today’s market. In an organization that encourages and nurtures an entrepreneurial outlook, everyone has the potential to unleash their inner entrepreneur and bring new and dynamic ways of thinking into their work environment. It has more to do with the ways of thinking encouraged by the organizational culture than by any inherent differences in talent or aptitude.

The solution presented in this new book is piecemeal yet targeted ‘re-entrepreneuring’. With the help of international case studies and first-hand testimony from business leaders, the authors show how the entrepreneurial approach can be applied to any organization and at all levels, in order to spark innovation, remove operational obstacles and – ultimately – to create new value.

Traditional approaches to brand management adopt an organizational perspective–the assumption is that the organization designs, produces and sells the brand, making a promise to customers and delivering on it. However, this view is limited. The power of the Internet to connect people and the desire of consumers to focus on experiences means that the brand is not created by the organization, but rather is co-created through the experiences of consumers, the participation of people in online communities and the sharing of ideas and opinions within networks.

In this new reality, the task of managers is to connect, listen and participate. The focus of brand management is no longer on the organization but on the intersection between the organization and all its stakeholders. This changing environment must lead to a new brand management paradigm, which the authors call the “co-creation perspective.”

Written in an accessible style with easy to understand models and international examples, Brand Management looks at how co-created brands create value and how the success of a co-creative approach can be measured. The book outlines the specific leadership approach required to develop a supportive culture–co-creative leaders need to be willing to let go of their brand and allow employees, customers and other stakeholders to help develop it.

Along with the positive outcomes of co-creation come situational challenges that will need to be handled differently within different industries. Co-creating Brands details the adjustments that leaders and organizations will need to make and how these challenges can be overcome.