The Battle for Female Talent in Brazil - Center for Work-Life Policy

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Goldman Sachs: New Markets Mobility Exchange
Early into his career at Goldman Sachs, Robin Vince, then based in London, was
asked to pack a bag and spend six months in New York. “It was a great experience
to see the business from a slightly different angle, to form new relationships, to see
the technology and tools and market practices in this new location, and then have
the benefit of importing some of the best practices back to my home location.”
Four years later, Vince was asked to move to New York permanently to run the
very business he had sampled earlier. “I know my career would not have turned
out the same way had I not spent those six months” in New York, says Vince, now
Goldman Sachs’ head of operations. “It was an invaluable part of the foundation
that ultimately helped me build a successful career.”
So invaluable, in fact, that the investment bank hopes to replicate the experience
through the “New Markets Mobility Exchange.” The program, to be launched in
the late summer of 2010, will choose 50 to 60 individuals in this year’s graduating
class of the firm’s Operations Analyst program to spend up to six months working
in Goldman Sachs offices including Brazil, Russia, India, China and other key hub
locations.
“Countries like the BRICs and other growth markets are central to our strategy
over the medium and long-term,” explains Vince. “We need to reduce the barriers
and improve the comfort people have interacting with people from different
cultures.” His view is that if people get accustomed to mobility early in their career,
they will be more open to mobility later in their career. By offering this opportunity
to people in their early 20s, who are still young enough to be unencumbered
by spouses, children and career expectations, Vince hopes they will gain “the
experience and sensitivity to doing business in places they are less familiar with,
bring the value of their own experience to bear on those situations, and re-import
the experience back to their home location.”
The firm operates its analyst academies, a three-year training program for
recent college graduates across Goldman Sachs’ global offices including Salt Lake
City, New York, Jersey City, Bangalore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London. The New
Markets Mobility Exchange is an aspirational program, targeted at people who are
successful at what they already do and are familiar enough with Goldman Sachs’
culture to be able to leverage their skills in different locations. Participants were
nominated based on who might benefit most from the experience, who had the
curiosity and appetite for adventure, and who had the foreign language skills.
Managers nominated 120 applicants from a pool of 500 trainees. They selected
a Korean national presently working in Tokyo who will be transferred to Seoul, an
American fluent in Portuguese who will spend time in São Paulo, and an analyst
of Russian origin who will go to Moscow. Close to 60 percent of the program
participants are women.
“One of the factors is building a pipeline of returning nationals,” notes Meriel
Ward, Vice President and co-head of the operations HR generalist team. “Growing
the future leadership pipeline in smaller local offices is a big part of this program.”
To ensure that none of the participating offices suffer headcount shortages,
all managers who send someone in the program also receive someone. All
participants are assigned a “buddy” to help them integrate into their destination
office, as well as a mentor; senior-level sponsors are responsible for ensuring that
host managers know what to expect and for the program’s success in their region.
Both home and host managers will team up on feedback and performance reviews,
so the participant won’t “get lost” during the duration of the program.
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