Beyond providing liquidity and raising a firm's profile, becoming a publicly listed company can give employees a tangible "spring in the step." The ability to see a daily share price and feel part of a growing, visible entity creates a powerful sense of engagement that is often underestimated.

Lloyd Blankfein suggests that while he ran Goldman post-IPO, it still had a private partnership mentality focused on maximizing earnings. He views his successor as completing the IPO process by shifting focus to pleasing public shareholders through smoother earnings to achieve a higher valuation multiple.

Alan Waxman saw how 10 siloed Goldman Sachs investing groups made contradictory, costly bets during the 2001 telecom bust. This direct observation of dysfunctional "fiefdoms" led him to build Sixth Street with a mandatory, collaborative "one team" structure to ensure cross-functional insight and avoid repeating those same mistakes.

To ensure genuine collaboration across funds, Centerbridge structures compensation so a "substantial minority" of an individual's pay comes from other areas of the firm. This economic incentive forces a firm-wide perspective and makes being "part of one team" a financial reality, not just a cultural slogan.

To maintain an "ownership culture" in a large public company, leaders must treat key employees like partners. This means floating ideas, gathering reactions, adjusting plans, and sometimes postponing actions—a slower, more collaborative process than a typical top-down corporate hierarchy.

By compensating employees based on firm-wide results, Goldman's partnership culture turns every employee into a risk manager. This structure incentivizes people to scrutinize activities outside their own silo, creating a robust, decentralized system of checks and balances that protects the entire firm.

Structuring compensation around a single, firm-wide P&L, rather than individual deal performance, eliminates internal competition. It forces a culture of true collaboration, as everyone's success is tied together. The system is maintained as a meritocracy by removing underperformers from the 'boat.'

To combat cultural erosion post-COVID, Goldman Sachs's leadership made a significant investment. They sent all 450 partners on mandatory two-day offsites in small groups to intentionally discuss, redefine, and recommit to the firm's culture, with the CEO attending every dinner.

Triton rejects a hierarchy where only deal-makers are partners. They extend partnership and carried interest to functions like Investor Relations and operational units. This fosters an egalitarian "one team" culture and ensures long-term alignment, recognizing these functions are strategic, not administrative.