Goldman Sachs really is worried about Greg Smith's book

In advance of Greg Smith's "60 Minutes" interview on CBS this Sunday, Goldman Sachs has been circulating a briefing note putting their side of the story:

However, to better understand Greg's criticisms, we examined his performance reviews for 2009-2011 to determine if we had failed to appropriately address issues which he may have raised about the conduct of his colleagues, and, more generally, about our culture. Our review showed that Greg did not provide any negative feedback on any of his reviewees in any of those years. In fact, he scored all of his colleagues’ performance at the top of the range, including in the areas of Culture and Values, Leadership and People Management, Client Focus and Reputational Excellence.

It sounds like young Greg understood very well that a prerequisite to getting ahead is to avoid rocking the boat...

Goldman Sachs' PR people are clearly taking this adverse publicity seriously, although I do wonder whether the best approach would be to shrug, let it wash over them and drain away, making use of the chronic short attention span of the global media. But hey, it's a fruitful source of blogging for all and sundry.