Wednesday, June 11, 2008

35. Starbucks

35. Starbucks

Investment banks and Starbucks go together like Barry Bonds and steroids. The former relies on the latter to be great. Bonds was a top player before steroids but after he started juicing in the 90s he started hitting home runs at a record rate and eventually broke the record for single-season and all-time home runs. Investment banks would do a fine job without the goods from Starbucks but earnings would be down more and most bankers would pass out on the jobs. Starbucks helps juice the i-bankers up to work long hours and be happy doing monotonous work.

Starbucks is not only the place where bankers get their caffeine kicks, but it also serves as a common meeting place to get out of the office. It’s the perfect excuse because no boss will deny his analysts the chance to get some caffeine so they can stay awake all night. Starbucks has become a staple in our society, serving as the place to casually meet someone and chat. In the eyes of a lonely investment banking guy, it may serve as a place to have a pseudo-date. In the eyes of the girl it may just be seen as two friends catching up, but we won’t count her opinion.

Starbucks cups litter the offices of investment banks and serve as trophies of our hard work. Lucites may show the deals we have done, but Starbucks leftovers show the hours we put in even for the pitches and internal meetings. They say, “Behind every great man, there’s a great woman.” Well, below or next to every investment bank is a Starbucks. Separately they are top of the heap, but together they become truly great.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

why does everyone neglect jamba like a helpless middle child?

Anonymous said...

Because Jamba neglects the fact that most bankers are clustered in the Wall Street area, and Jamba doesn't seem to have any locations convenient to Wall Street.

Jamba tries too hard to do the Union Square hippie thing and let's face it, the staff do, too. They hate bankers and the bankers hate them back. If they can manage to go that far north to find a Jamba to begin with.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! You should publish these in a book when you finish your analyst tenure.