Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers Team Reflection

D. Clem, N Hos, Abdu Agtani, F Farl

MGT 521

October 28, 2014

Dr Ste Qik

Lehman Brothers Team Reflection

Lehman Brothers Culture

According to the reading (Lessons from Lehman Brothers) the Lehman brother corporation culture consisted of employees with a low ethical standard exemplifying a weak culture. In fact, the firm’s inability to provide a culture where a high ethical standard would support positive moral and values in fact perpetuated the company’s weak culture. However, the Lehman Corporation was not always a weak culture according to the book written in 2009 called Culture Crash. For example, in 1850 brothers Emanuel, Mayer, and Henry Lehman founded the investment bank Lehman Brothers. The Lehman’s was-remembered for their admirable culture characteristics that served the business well for many generations Greenfield, H. (2009). Some of those characteristics consisted of “The belief that the firm is a family”, “Resilience in the face of near disaster”,” Pride in being the underdog and “Fierce competitiveness” Greenfield, H. (2009).

It was after Lehman made strategic acquisitions expanding into new businesses, with net revenues ascending from $3 billion in 1994 to more than $19 billion in 2007, the firm brought in many new employees including different types of employees. Employees number from 8,500 to more than 28,000. Greenfield, H. (2009) states, while the company had changed dramatically, the culture, which was part of its success over the previous twenty or so years, remained fundamentally the same. Lehman proudly tried to fit the new company to the old culture. Ultimately, the old culture helped destroy the firm Greenfield, H. (2009). Basically, the Lehman Corporation begin to take on more and more employees with different moral values than what the firm originally was founded on, thus causing the bankruptcy of September 15, 2008. According to the reading, other well-established firms were also negligent for...