The Culture At Lehman Brothers: NASCAR-Style Efficiency

During their latest episode of the VALUE: After Hours Podcast, Taylor, Carlisle, and Dillian discussed The Culture At Lehman Brothers: NASCAR-Style Efficiency. Here’s an excerpt from the episode:

Jared: I’ll tell you a story which is the culture of Lehman. This is what Lehman was all about, okay?

Jake: Yeah.

Jared: So the guy who traded semiconductor options was a little bit of a hothead, and he would get mad. One day, he got mad at something and he took his phone and he threw it on the desk, but it bounced off the desk and hit his screen and cracked his screen, okay? Now one of his screens is totally dark. He’s all pissed off and he’s got no screen. And in any big bureaucratic bank like a JPMorgan or a Citigroup or something like that, you would have to call an admin, and they would fill out a form, and they would request a new screen, it would take a month, and it would just be a huge headache. So basically, the IT guys saw this from across the room. They ran over with another screen, and they had these drills and just like [makes zipping sounds]

Jake: Like a pit crew.

Tobias: [laughs]

Jared: They took out his old screen, and they put in a new one, and they plugged it in, and he was good to go in three minutes. It was like NASCAR. It was like a pit crew. No bureaucracy, no bullshit. Just like, “Just keep working, keep making money.” That was the ethos of that place.

Tobias: And still they failed?

Jared: Yeah. Well, it really failed because of the actions of a handful of people, not because of all the people at the firm.

Tobias: What was it that precipitated that was the two–? Were they Lehman hedge funds that went belly or they were their best earns hedge funds that went belly–? [crosstalk]

Jared: No, really. It was a top down decision from Dick Fuld and Joe Gregory to just keep plowing into real estate and mortgages and subprime. Like, it’s just they paly for the [crosstalk] firm.

Tobias: Music explain, and got to keep dancing?

Jared: Yeah.

You can find out more about the VALUE: After Hours Podcast here – VALUE: After Hours Podcast. You can also listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast platforms here:

Apple Podcasts