Stephanie Cohen – The Evolution of M&A and Corporate Strategy - [Invest Like the Best, EP.131]

My guest this week is Stephanie Cohen, who is the chief strategy officer for Goldman Sachs and a member of their management committee. Prior to her current role, she spent the majority of her career in the investment banking and M&A divisions at Goldman.  We discuss lessons learned from her career in M&A and the many initiatives she now leads at the firm. I really enjoyed her perspective on how a big, established firm like Goldman can balance innovation with improving existing businesses. Please enjoy our conversation. For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes 1:15 - (First Question) –  Motives on both sides for doing M&A 3:26 – Most difficult deal she worked on 4:50 – Biggest value add she brought from her seat on the Fiat deal 5:59 – Biggest changes since she started to today 8:31 – Smartest ways for companies who want to be acquired to be prepared 10:14 – Best M&A banker she’s seen 11:13 – What should businesses looking to make an acquisition be thinking about 15:16 – What does a strategy from her perspective mean 17:16 – Tension between innovation and change 19:46 – Difference between bottom-up and top-down components of strategy 22:15 – Exploration vs exploitation 26:28 – Submission process within accelerate 29:37 – Next step after you see a good idea 31:05 – Her take on FinTech and Industrials and their collision 35:15 – Lessons from elite early stage investors 37:21 – The origins of the LAUNCH program 40:06 – Important pieces beyond just the capital 42:42 – How they market to women starting business 44:56 – Lessons that she has learned about narrative and communications 47:07 – How she handles developing talent internally 49:28 – Managing her time 59:28 – Biggest concerns about OKR’s? 52:09 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Stephanie 53:07 – Kids in the area of competing   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag