SG Cowen: New Recruits
HRD CASE ANALYSIS 1. SG Cowen: New Recruits
SG Cowen is a firm which was born when Société Générale bought Cowen and Company in 1998 and is mainly rooted in Boston. Its main interest is to focus on emerging growth companies in two volatile but highly profitable areas, health care and technology. The case is mainly about the company’s recruiting issues. SG Cowen has not invested on ‘On campus recruit’ because they didn’t have enough money to spend on that like other big competitors, JP Morgan and Goldman. They recruit employees in the early winter and spring of each year. SG Cowen also wanted to hire people from major ‘Top 10’ schools. However, considering their capital on hiring and presence, they enlarged the boundary to make ‘On campus recruiting’ to Top 25 schools. Through Super Saturday, they pick up four candidates to be considered to be hired.
1. What are the key decision points used by S.G. Cowen in making hiring decisions? What is your evaluation of the process used by the firm? * Their key decision points are extension to Top 25 schools for ‘On campus recruiting’ and focusing on informative talks. They had to compete with big firms like JP Morgan and Goldman, but it was hard to get the best students from the best schools before competitors got them. So it was enlargement of the candidate schools’ boundary to compete big, good name valued companies. They could even find good candidates who have high loyalty, commitment, and cultural fits from 11-25th schools.
By having informative talk, they were able to attract applicants with good quality. SG Cowen reduced the time and effort on making presentations and focused on the informative talk with applicants. They sent alumni to their alma maters. And they emphasized their firm’s advantage that workers would learn a lot from working and have high degree of exposure to clients, responsibilities, and entrepreneurship in Boutique Company.
2. What is your evaluation of the criteria used by this
SG Cowen is a firm which was born when Société Générale bought Cowen and Company in 1998 and is mainly rooted in Boston. Its main interest is to focus on emerging growth companies in two volatile but highly profitable areas, health care and technology. The case is mainly about the company’s recruiting issues. SG Cowen has not invested on ‘On campus recruit’ because they didn’t have enough money to spend on that like other big competitors, JP Morgan and Goldman. They recruit employees in the early winter and spring of each year. SG Cowen also wanted to hire people from major ‘Top 10’ schools. However, considering their capital on hiring and presence, they enlarged the boundary to make ‘On campus recruiting’ to Top 25 schools. Through Super Saturday, they pick up four candidates to be considered to be hired.
1. What are the key decision points used by S.G. Cowen in making hiring decisions? What is your evaluation of the process used by the firm? * Their key decision points are extension to Top 25 schools for ‘On campus recruiting’ and focusing on informative talks. They had to compete with big firms like JP Morgan and Goldman, but it was hard to get the best students from the best schools before competitors got them. So it was enlargement of the candidate schools’ boundary to compete big, good name valued companies. They could even find good candidates who have high loyalty, commitment, and cultural fits from 11-25th schools.
By having informative talk, they were able to attract applicants with good quality. SG Cowen reduced the time and effort on making presentations and focused on the informative talk with applicants. They sent alumni to their alma maters. And they emphasized their firm’s advantage that workers would learn a lot from working and have high degree of exposure to clients, responsibilities, and entrepreneurship in Boutique Company.
2. What is your evaluation of the criteria used by this