On a warm July day in the London office of Goldman Sachs, Steve Windsor, a partner at the bank, stepped up to the ping-pong table to serve. He lost that match, and every one thereafter.

"That's the problem with Goldman Sachs," he said. "You say: 'Have you played table tennis before?' And they say: 'Yes, a little bit, I used to play for my country.' There's no concept of letting the boss win at Goldman Sachs."