CASE PRESENTATION

ON
SG COWEN : NEW RECRUITS

GROUP 1 :- 1)Ruchita Chauhan(SMBA14083)

2)Arcchit Mathur (SMBA14079)
3)Shashank Kapoor (SMBA14057)
4)Yashovardhan Singh (SMBA14069)
5)Ashish Passi (SMBA14086)

INTRODUCTION

Born after Societe Generale purchased Cowen and Co. in July 1998.
SG was an international bank based in France privatised in 1987.
One of the worlds largest banks with assets over $430 billion as of Dec
2000.
Wanted a foothold in investment banking in US.
With 1500 professionals they planned to remain a Boutique firm.
Their major focus was on healthcare and technology.
Current CEO Peter A. Cohen.
Former CEO Kim Fennebresque.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF
THE CASE
The Co has made hiring decisions to fill a new class of 30 associates.
Chip Rae was the director of recruiting at SG Cowen.
8 people already working in summer internship have been given fixed
employment and rest 7 third year analyst already working have been
promoted to the associate level.
Rest 15 candidates interviewed from top B Schools and non core schools.
Hiring criteria done in 3 stages :a) Informational Interviews.
b) On campus rounds.
c) Super Saturday

 Informational interviews were done as an informal process to gauge how

serious and enthusiastic the candidates were and a chance for candidates
to learn more about the firm and the industry.
Second round was On Campus Round wherein Rae assigned banking
professionals as team captains in the different top B Schools who acted as
Point of contacts for students.
Rae scheduled company presentation in advance of the interview dates
wherein he wanted to answer 4 questions : who are we?, what do we do?,
what distinguishes us from our competitors? And what are the next steps?
Rae wanted senior associates to conduct first round interviews as he felt
they would be a better person to judge the technical skills and talent of
the candidates.

 Rae instructed interviewers to test for Culture Fit.

The selected candidates were put in the Super Saturday Recruiting Event
which was the biggest recruiting event at Wallstreet.
5 half an hour session short interviews were done with every employee.
All selections are done and now place for two candidates is left but there are
4 strong candidates with them . The decision is yet to be made.

PROBLEM
IDENTIFICATION

The major problem in this case is the Candidate Selection which is to

be done by the bankers of the two candidates amongst the 4 candidates.
The second problem is that their selection can not be random as they are
recruiting in the Super Saturday Event which is the largest and only few
good firms get to recruit there so their selection has to be the best .
Third problem is as it is an off day so interviewers and interviewees are
in a hurry to reach back home as it is also snowing outside and the
weather is getting worst.

CANDIDATES ANALYSIS

NATALYA GODLEWSKA

An MBA student at Cornell.

Earned an UG degree in finance with highest GPA.
Served as a teaching assistant in finance at Cornell Business School.
Spoke fluent Russian, German, Polish and French.
Worked 4 years for CommScan, a company developing M & A
modelling software for bankers.

MERITS OF NATALYA:1. Excellent finance background, good analytical knowledge and great
understanding of financial market.
2. Background checks revealed a positive and convincing response from
her past supervisor.
3. She is determined, ambitious and hard working.
4. Many bankers said that she is go-getter, has positive energy and can-do
attitude which can be a hit among clients.
DEMERITS OF NATALYA:5. One associate felt that Natalya might not be culture fit with other
employees as she seemed stiff and uncomfortable during small talks.
6. Managing director felt that her less than perfect English will effect
her ability to work smoothly with managers.

MARTIN STREET

He served four years in military.

A second year MBA student at Wharton University.
He had substantial leadership experience and led a rescue operation in
war-torn Bosnia.
He was the president of his section at Wharton and also of the Running
Club and completed two marathons and one triathlon.
But he had no business experience.

MERITS OF MARTIN:1. Substantial Leadership skills.

2. A good motivator and hark worker
3. Has Dynamic personality and is confident and articulate.
DEMERITS OF MARTIN:4. Not having any financial knowledge or technical skill neither had gone
through any financial courses.
5. His grades cannot be accessed due to Wharton recruiting rules.
6. Also Martin is involved in recruiting events with other firms which
doubts his continuity and dedications towards the firm.
7. Martin has expressed his interest in working with smaller firms.

KEN GOLDSTEIN

A second year MBA student at university of Berkley.

Worked at Price water house Coopers for five years.
A manager at PWC and at the same time managing multiple audit
teams, drawing up budgets and pricing for projects , making
presentations to win business , and resolving technical accounting
issues for clients.

MERITS OF KEN:1. Good job experience of 5 years.

2. Worked at manager levels with responsibilities.
3. Has good financial knowledge and is multitasker, managing multiple audit
teams, drawing up budgets and pricing of budgets, making presentations
and resolving accounts issues.
4. His reference from PWC , former company was very positive being as a
top performer.
DEMERITS OF KEN:5. His future plans might be a problem for SG Cowen.
6. Being a married person his performance might be low as compared to his
earlier performance when not married.
7. He had worked at manager level which doubts his ability to take orders
from his superiors.

ANDY SANCHEZ

Completed his UG degree in economics at UCLA.

Second year MBA Student at the UCLA.
He ran his own business for three years after his college and
continued to run while he was enrolled in a business school.
He gave Kaplan style tutoring business to prepare students for high
school achievement tests and SATs in both English & Spanish.

MERITS OF ANDY: A good entrepreneur with 3 years of experience in running his own firm.
Enthusiastic and personable.
Creative and possess good leadership skills.
Good motivator.
DEMERITS OF ANDY: Undergraduate GPA was of big concern.
No sufficient financial credentials and technical finance knowledge
required for this job.
No corporate culture experience of working under supervisors and taking
orders.
No guarantee of continuity in SG Coven.

RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR DECISION MAKING

According to our discussions and critically analyzing the pros and cons of each
candidate, we all came up to a mutual decision that :
Natalya Godlewska and Ken Goldstein should be selected because when we
analyzed their evaluation forms and their merits and demerits we found out
that they were fitting the eligibility criteria of the company.
The CEO of the Co wanted the candidates to be Culturally fit and
Possessing good financial and analytical skills.

THANK YOU