...Case analysis : SG Cowen – New Recruits 1. What are the key decision points used by S.G. Cowen in making hiring decisions? What is your evaluation of the process used by the firm? SG Cowen utilized a well‐developed, tiered process to make hiring decisions on potential candidates. SG Cowen first conducts informational sessions at on‐campus recruiting events to describe the firm, its benefits and steps in the recruiting/hiring process. They use these first‐round interviews, in advance of the formal recruiting process, to assess how serious candidates are about the opportunity. SG Cowen then reviews the resumes submitted by interested students and holds open, on‐campus interviews. The firm also selects some of those interested students specifically for closed interviews. The pool of initial candidates is narrowed down to a few candidates through a second round of on campus interviews. The first key decision point for SG Cowen is to select candidates who are best qualified to make it through the “Super Saturday” final selection process in New York City. Recruiters focus on identifying candidates that possess the skills to succeed in the company’s day‐to‐day operations and have the personality to fit the organization’s culture. During the Super Saturday event, the thirty candidates are each interviewed by five senior bankers. Following the interviews, the senior bankers gather to determine which candidates should be extended offers. At this final key decision point, the recruiters...
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...rP os t 9-402-028 REV: JANUARY 19, 2006 THOMAS DELONG VINEETA VIJAYARAGHAVAN We are who we recruit. op yo SG Cowen: New Recruits — SG Cowen professional Chip Rae, director of recruiting at SG Cowen, looked out the conference room window at the falling flakes and wondered how fast the snow was accumulating. Most of the firm’s bankers had come in from Connecticut or Westchester to participate in the Super Saturday recruiting event, and he knew they were anxious to get home before the weather deteriorated and made travel dangerous. tC The interviews had finished at noon, and the candidates from various graduate schools had left for their flights right away. Now, the bankers were eating lunch, discussing interview results and making decisions. They were sitting in “Giants Stadium,” the bank’s largest conference room, and Rae had set the tables up in a U-shape so that he could stand in the front and still communicate with all 30 bankers. He posted placards with all the candidate names on the bulletin board and moved them around as they came up for discussion. No The hiring meeting had moved rapidly through a number of candidates. The decision makers had agreed on candidates who were firm “yeses” and some other clear “nos.” Now was the tricky part: there were four candidates still left. Each person had some strong support among their interviewers but had also raised some questions. To reach the ideal class size after factoring in expected...
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...SG Cowen : New Recruits (case 1) SG Cowen : Background SG Cowen : Case Overview investment banking Industry 2001 Investment 1. 2. 3. banking Industry 2004 : Consolidation in the investment banking industry was widespread. Targeted Custody Averaging 50% of revenue (the biggest expense on wall street was compensation cost) SG Cowen : Case Overview SG Cowen was born when Societe Generate purchased Cowen and Company in July 1998. One of the world’s largest banks with assets of over $430 billion as December 2000 SG Cowen : Hiring Process Promoted associate after 3 years Hiring an intern after they graduate Recruiting program on campus: 1. Information Interview 2. Assigned team Captains SG Cowen : Rae’s Strategy Paying more attention in the next 15 schools in the top 25. Company Presentation SG Cowen : On – Campus Round 2-3 Schedules of Interviews Open Schedule : selected based on their interest Closed Schedule : selected on the basis of their submitted resumes. Put a detail note one resume Give a test of culture fit SG Cowen : Super Saturday CEO Speech at the dinner. Interview begin at 9 and each interviewer and each candidate had five half hour session with short breaks. Assignment Answer 1. Reflect upon a time you had a negative recruiting/hiring experience. What were the signs the experience was not going well? Body language The questions facial...
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...Summary: SG Cowen is a investment banking firm based in the United States, born when Societe Generale (France) decided to expand into the EEUU and bought the firm Cowen and the company in 1998.They are a relatively small firm, more focused on the quality and service of their product than in the volume. The recruiting committee of SG Cowen is facing an important decision in regards to selecting two persons from the pool of four remaining candidates after all definite “Yes” and “No” have been identified. The company has held a meeting where they must decide among 30 different candidates, they faced with the last four, with the dilemma of which ones to employ for the last two places. The hiring process for new associates used to begin in the fall. The process after that can be broken up into three stages. Each of these stages helped the company make a decision about the candidate and is a key decision point for the firm. The working process is mainly divided in three stages: The purpose of the first one is to see if the candidate has real interest on the company by conducting informal interviews with students in the office in advance of official first- round interviews. These interviews were not part of formal process,that process was to know how serious and enthusiastic the candidates were and a chance to learn more about the firm. In this round interviewers are also instructed to test for culture fit. In the second one the candidates have an interview with an associate who will...
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...SG COWEN- NEW RECRUITS Introduction SG Cowen is an investment bank which was created in 1998 when Société Générale (an international bank based in France) decided to acquire Cowen and Company (company which was focused on building up its investment banking and M&A Advisory services). SG Cowen’s activity is focused on emerging growth companies especially in two risky but highly profitable areas: health care and technology. For the success of that business, SG Cowen needs talented, committed and strong cultural fit employees. This report has the goal to describe and evaluate the hiring process of that company and also the criteria that is used to decide among the candidates. In the end, based on the criteria used by the company, we’ll decide which two candidates (out of four) we would decide to hire for SG Cowen. 1. Hiring Process & Evaluation The hiring process for a new class of associates begins in fall and consists of internal and external hiring. 1. Internal Recruitment: a. Those employed as analysts and promoted to first-year associates at the end of their third year (without business school education), or b. Those starting out as interns in the summer and then being offered full time employment after graduation 2. External Recruitment: The hiring strategy focused on “core business schools”. However, Chip Rae, the director of recruiting at SG Cowen, has a different strategy when choosing the “core business school” comparing with what...
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...SG Cowen: New Recruits 2011120259 정유진 1. What are the key decision points used by S.G. Cowen in making hiring decisions? What is your evaluation of the process used by the firm? Key decision points: Paying more attention to the next 15 universities in the top 25 - They used to compete with big firms like JP Morgan and Goldman for recruiting new employees, but it was hard to get the best students from the best schools. Because competitors got most of the best students with huge recruiting budgets, brand names and much larger hiring needs. So they decided to extend candidate schools’ boundary to compete big, giant competitors. They could even find good candidates who have high loyalty, commitment, and cultural fits from next 15 universities. In the process of campus recruiting - Rae tries to match up alumni with their own school and also reduced the time and effort on making presentations and focused on the informative talk with applicants. So it helps for applicant better understanding of what really have to do in that job position and can get real advice. Super Saturday – I think the purpose of it is good, but it is a little wasting process. Actually it costs a lot and takes too long so bankers are usually tired and distracted when final decision making. So I suggest it should be more simple and less exhausting process for example, just using the weekday’s dinner time not to sacrifice bankers’ Saturday that discourage them to assess candidates. 2. What is your evaluation...
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...Case Study of SG Cowen: New Recruits The recruiting committee of SG Cowen is facing an important decision in regards to selecting two persons from the pool of four remaining candidates after all definite “Yes” and “No” have been identified. Being the member of the Super Saturday hiring group from the company I would have to make a decision that would have a dual effect: Being an associate of the company I am vested in its success which depends in a great degree on the quality of the employees working for the firm, including the quality of the new hires. Potential mistake in identifying the right candidate who makes both functional and cultural fit for the company, especially giving approval to the candidate who turns a wrong fit later, might bear some negative impact on my credibility and reputation among the colleagues and supervisors. Based on the two premises outlined above, I believe that the most suitable of the four is the first candidate, Natalya Godlewska. Not only does she have very strong academic credentials both from her MBA and undergraduate studies, but she also has excellent references from her previous employee. Among other positive characteristics of this candidate are her determination, ambition, and readiness to work hard. She also made an impression of a go-getter with a “can-do attitude” who radiated positive energy. The reservations of the two members of the recruiting committee about her stiffness, being uncomfortable during small talk, and her...
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...SG Cowen: a Case Study Group One Patrick De Nava Sean Fagan Chelsea Green Leonard Keefer Rose Martinez sg SG Cowen: a Case Study Group One Patrick De Nava Sean Fagan Chelsea Green Leonard Keefer Rose Martinez sg “We’re looking for a few good men.” The Marines have been using this slogan for well over two hundred years, and while the message is the same, the recruiting methods have changed dramatically. We’re going to look at how one company, S.G. Cowen, goes about the business of filling its employee roster. Recruiting Process SG Cowen is an investment bank that was formed by the acquisition of Cowen and Company, a small but well respected investment bank known for quality research and equity sales, by Societe Generale, an international bank based in France. The new firm is comprised of about 1,500 professionals who specialize in health care and technology. The firm looks to hire about 30 associates each year, with about many of them coming from third year analysts being promoted. Some of the new recruits are business school students who start as interns after their sophomore year in school and are hired after completing two years of summer internship. Other associates are recruited from top business schools. SG Cowen’s process for recruiting new employees is both strategic and well developed. SG Cowen begins the recruiting process each fall by holding informational presentations at its core business schools, such as NYU, Cornell, USC, and Notre Dame. ...
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...1. What is your evaluation of the hiring process used by S.G.Cowen? S.G.Cowen uses the same pattern as the majority of Wall Street companies by making hiring decisions during the early winter and spring of each year so that the new associates can begin in the summer. Besides a full hiring process, the company selects some associates that already worked or are still working to S.G.Cowen utilising, therefore, internal sources of recruitment. First year associates selected internally can be analysts that after three years of collaboration (without attending a business school) are promoted or summer interns that attend a business school and are offered a full-time contract at the end of the internship. The hiring process of S.G.Cowen in terms of new outside associates (that had never worked for the company before) underlies on presentations made by bankers in “core business schools” (for example NYU or Cornell) to inform the students about their work environment and conditions. The aim of these presentations is to make sure that four questions are answered: “who are we, what do we do, what distinguish us from competitors and what are the next steps”. This ensures that everyone receives a clear, complete and similar message from all bankers. The next step is to focus on informational interviews to help them understand how students felt about working in a company like S.G.Cowen. These interviews are highly efficient because they work like a previous self-selection process. Only the...
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...1. Key decision points used in making decisions: Informational interviews: In this phase, SG Cowen invites candidates to its office for an informational interview to get a clear understanding of the firm. Through this it assesses candidate’s interest level in the job. On Campus round: In this round key decisions point is checking if the candidate possess necessary skills to perform the job. Though the cultural fit is checked in this round the kind of questions asked will not reveal anything about the candidate. Super Saturday: In this round culture fit takes primary importance. In the five sessions of half an hour each, apart from the cultural fit, candidates are also tested for their skills, how they can handle pressure of attending 5 consecutive interviews, love for work, will the candidate accept the offer if given, commitment. 2. Evaluation of hiring process * Assigning a team captain to every school (its alumni) will help in engaging the students with the firm. * With the informational interviews they are able to create awareness among the students about their company. This is beneficial to the company also as it allows students to make an informed decision thereby reducing the potential for bad hiring. * By making the team captain liable to the quality of candidates they bring to Super Saturday, they have eliminated the risk of biasedness. * All interviewers were encouraged to take notes about the candidate during the interview. * They...
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...* ------------------------------------------------- HOME * ------------------------------------------------- MBA RESOURCES * ------------------------------------------------- GWSB * ------------------------------------------------- MBA PREPARATION * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- PART-TIME MBA IN DC * ------------------------------------------------- SIDE NOTES * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- BUSINESS SCHOOL CASES * ------------------------------------------------- BEST MBA TEXTBOOKS * ------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE Part-time MBA Degree in DC Blog on in and out of class experience of part-time MBA student at GWU School of Business Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group Case Analysis APRIL 12, 2011 The presented case of Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group engagement with SKS Manufacturing is offering invaluable lessons in team and project management. It briefly touches upon all major facets of the consulting company involvement with client projects, such as: • Engagement planning • Team selection • Roles and responsibilities of team members • Background and qualifications...
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...|[pic] |MAN 383.20: MANAGING PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS | | |SPRING, 2009 | Professor John W. Burrows, Ph.D. Office ATT L084 Phone 232-5655 (office) 740-2839 (cell – emergencies only before 9pm) E-Mail John.Burrows@mccombs.utexas.edu Course Web Page via Blackboard Teaching Assistant Sowmiya Chocka Narayanan (sowmiya@mail.utexas.edu) ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Course Objectives Technical competencies are not enough to ensure continued success in your career if you cannot leverage efforts. How do you motivate employees to go over and above the call of duty to get the job done? How can you ensure that decisions are not biased? What influence tactics can you use even if you do not have the formal authority to tell someone what to do? This course attempts to add to your understanding of life in complex organizations by covering topics including, leveraging culture to reach strategic objectives, motivating and rewarding desired behavior, designing organizations to fit with strategic objectives, selecting the appropriate leadership style to motivate others to perform, and using power and influence effectively. My approach will be managerial, focusing...
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...9-604-101 REV: JUNE 20, 2006 GARY PISANO LEE FLEMING Vertex Pharmaceuticals: R&D Portfolio Management (A) EEEddduuucccaaatttiiiooonnnaaalll mmmaaattteeerrriiiaaalll sssuuuppppppllliiieeeddd bbbyyy TTThhheee CCCaaassseee CCCeeennntttrrreee CCCooopppyyyrrriiiggghhhttt eeennncccooodddeeeddd AAA777666HHHMMM---JJJUUUJJJ999KKK---PPPJJJMMMNNN999III OOOrrrdddeeerrr rrreeefffeeerrreeennnccceee FFF222555222999888333 I’ve never made a bad decision. I’ve just had bad data. — Joshua Boger, CEO and Founder of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Like many New Englanders on this bright October morning in 2003, Josh Boger, CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, had been up until 2:00 a.m. the previous evening watching the Boston Red Sox playoff game. The game, predictably, ended in a heartbreaking loss for the Red Sox, but Boger’s lingering disappointment (and regret over staying up so late) quickly faded as he strode down the halls of the Cambridge, Massachusetts company he had founded 15 years earlier. Vertex had four promising drugs in various stages of clinical development, and Boger was excited by the possibilities: “The portfolio is playing out exactly as we hoped. We’ve got a stream of revenues from our partnered project that will help fund our development costs. There are multiple paths for us to become profitable. We’re in a position to choose.” While the company had revenue from various corporate partnerships and roughly $600...
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...Careers in Investment Banking WetFeet Insider Guide 2005 Edition The WetFeet Research Methodology You hold in your hands a copy of the best-quality research available for job seekers. We have designed this Insider Guide to save you time doing your job research and to provide highly accurate information written precisely for the needs of the job-seeking public. (We also hope that you’ll enjoy reading it, because, believe it or not, the job search doesn’t have to be a pain in the neck.) Each WetFeet Insider Guide represents hundreds of hours of careful research and writing. We start with a review of the public information available. (Our writers are also experts in reading between the lines.) We augment this information with dozens of in-depth interviews of people who actually work for each company or industry we cover. And, although we keep the identity of the rank-and-file employees anonymous to encourage candor, we also interview the company’s recruiting staff extensively, to make sure that we give you, the reader, accurate information about recruiting, process, compensation, hiring targets, and so on. (WetFeet retains all editorial control of the product.) We also regularly survey our members and customers to learn about their experiences in the recruiting process. Finally, each Insider Guide goes through an editorial review and fact-checking process to make sure that the information and writing live up to our exacting standards before it goes out the door. Are we perfect...
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...INTRODUCTION HOW TO REALLY GET A JOB IN BANKING: The single most important thing you can do is to talk to as many people as you can. Talk to bankers and second years at SOM, learn about their experiences and views, and above all think for yourself. Getting a job in investment banking should involve two efforts on your part: (1) Learning your own needs - what is it you want in a job? (2) Learning what an investment bank is and does - does this type of job meets your needs? As a final warning, there is an allure to investment banking, namely that it is a high powered, fast-paced, exciting, dynamic career that can make you rich. This can be true, but it is also just a job - particularly as a first-year associate when it may not be as glamorous as you thought it would be. QUALITIES THAT INVESTMENT BANKS LOOK FOR It is important to see yourself as a portfolio of skills and qualities conducting an internet job search as well as any other. There are a number of skills and qualities that banks look for, and a successful candidate needs to put together several, but certainly not all of them. Additionally, it is probably a good idea to have some balance in your portfolio. Some qualities that banks look for on a resume or in the interview and some suggested ways to demonstrate them (these are just a few, and some banks will emphasize some more than others): Show a strong interest in Finance: Be able to convey to an interviewer/contact that you understand what...
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