Start-up culture lessons for Goldman Sachs

Who would want to work in public relations for Goldman Sachs? The opprobrium from the global financial crisis was beginning to fade a little when former employee Greg Smith went public this week with what he claims is a deeply dysfunctional and greedy culture within the company.

The reputation of Goldman Sachs, and Wall Street in general, is pretty much in the gutter right now. Start-ups, on the other hand, don’t seem to suffer the same public scorn. Here’s a good analysis from Forbes on why this is. 

Investment firms aren’t the only ones to lose grip on their winning culture, of course. If your focus is shifting to the financial rewards rather than the business, and people, that creates the money, here are six key steps to get your culture back on track.

It’s safe to say that Smith probably won’t be returning to the world of high finance. Maybe he will go it alone and launch his own business. Maybe he’ll write a book on his experiences and retire.

If he chooses the former option, he’d do well to heed these five tips on how to transition from the corporate to start-up world.

The other big business news story from overseas this week was the annual gathering of web entrepreneurs and wannabe garage start-ups in Austin, Texas for SXSW 2012.

The Microsoft-backed accelerator at SXSW was a highlight. This video takes us behind the scenes to see what such start-up competitions involve. 

Unbelievable as it may seem to Apple fanboys and girls, but some people have grumbled about the new iPad. Here is a run-down of the most common complaints. 

Remember faxes? Big clunky things that spat out smudged paper? Well, you may as well buy one if you’re going to waste the opportunity provided to you by Twitter, according to this piece. 

Finally, everyone tells a little white lie now and again. Within businesses, pricing is something that often has a strained relationship with the truth. This article explains why.