Fox Business Network’s Charlie Gasparino reports that Goldman Sachs (GS) conducted a poll which indicates that their public image is very negative and while “in the past they would have blown this off”, “image now matters”. Gasparino predicts this will have an impact on senior management saying “Lloyd will not be chairman of Goldman Sachs this time next year.”
Excerpts from the report, Courtesy of Fox Business Network:
On Goldman Sachs public image:
“Following the settlement with the SEC, Goldman Sachs went out and did a brand survey and found that after the settlement they received some positive publicity but even after that settlement their image did not improve. The alarming thing for Goldman Sachs is that their image negatives seem to be cemented into the general public. More than incidentally, the poll found that Goldman’s image is as bad as BP’s or even worse.”
On whether or not the company should be concerned with a negative public image:
“Since the bailout Goldman Sachs is now a company that does deal with the public. It deals with senators, it deals with this Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. It is for all intents and purposes, as much of a retail company as Citigroup. It needs a public image. And that’s what they are grappling with right now. In the past they would have blown this off. Right now they can’t do that.”
On how their public image impacts their business:
“Companies are much more politically correct than ever before. The companies that might want to do business with Goldman Sachs, do they really want to do business with the company that is infamously labeled the ‘vampire squid?’ They are having some problems in the investment banking area. And not only that, the government isn’t dealing with them. The government gave most of its business throughout this whole thing to Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan. The IPO for GM, that sort of stuff, is not going to Goldman, as in the past it would because Goldman famously had all its former executives working in government and they still do.”
On what impact this will have on company management:
“Image now matters. It’s the reason that I don’t believe Lloyd will not be chairman of Goldman Sachs this time next year. He might not even be CEO. Gary Cohn is going to go. They need to bring in people who deal with image more. And that’s the investment bankers. The investment bankers are salesmen.”
On what Lukas van Praagh has to say about the public’s perceptions of Goldman Sachs:
“Lukas van Praagh did not return my calls for comment today.”
