It seems that Goldman Sachs may have found another way to cut the workload for its most junior staff. Parts of the pitch books that are the bane of junior bankers’ lives are being repurposed and used again.
The revelation is included in a profile on Goldman’s new technology recruiting website. There, Jackie, co-manager of the banking desktop group at Goldman’s New York office, says she worked on a project to, ‘encourage the reuse of pitch book material, for greater efficiencies.’
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, pitch books are the paper-based presentations junior bankers put together to help banks win corporate finance business. Containing everything from company valuations to competitor analysis and suggestions of acquisition targets, they absorb analysts’ days (and nights). Across the industry, it hasn’t been uncommon for senior bankers to request multiple urgent changes to pitch books at 6pm one night in time for the next morning, with the result that analysts get no sleep.
The reuse of pitch book material at Goldman follows the introduction of ‘protected weekends’ in which Goldman’s analysts are compelled to leave the office at 9pm on Friday and not to return until 9am on Sunday (still the weekend, but anyway).
Is reusing pitch books the new thing Jackie’s profile suggests it is? Goldman Sachs didn’t respond to a request for comment. But one ex-Goldman associate says it’s common practice and has been going on for years. “There are always things that can be re-purposed – if you work on the consumer team in the UK, you can re-use the slide covering the consumer market. You can also re-use the data you’ve got for multiples and company valuations.”
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