Whenever the financial industry is discussed, the first image comes to our mind is the world famous bull of Wall Street followed by the name of their biggest bull, Goldman Sachs. The company that is undoubtedly America's most successful, envied, cynical, despised investment bank also viewed by many as "a premier casino for wealthy investors". Goldman provides myriad financial services including market making, underwriting services, investment & asset management and prime brokerage. Their main cliental is high net worth individuals, large corporations, hedge funds and most importantly Government of United States. .
Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs founded Goldman Sachs in a small space at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan in 1869. The initial reported capital of Goldman was $1.6m and made its name by pioneering the use of commercial paper for entrepreneurs. In 1906, Goldman entered in to the IPO market when it took Sears, Roebuck and Co. public. Since then, there was no looking back for Goldman after that and now the it has more than $900 billion in assets with more than 32,000 employees all around the globe. The company is famous for recruiting top talent from leading business schools and many of their ex-employees hold top positions in governments around the world. Till 1990, Goldman was highly reputable to the point that business school students thought of being hired by the firm "as the ultimate accomplishment", but insider trading cases arises in late 90's, involvement in European sovereign debt scandal and 2007 global financial crisis tarnished their reputation. Despite all the financial allegations and controversies, Goldman is the fourth largest corporate giver in America and a big contributor of universities and Non Profit Organizations.
Porter analysis provides a comprehensive tool to evaluate the power and strength of an organization. It also helps to identify the true standing of company's profitability, competitive intensity and the pull of a market.