March 5 2008: 8:02 AM EST Email | Print    Type Size  -  +  The
man who must keep Goldman growing  By Bethany McLean, editor at
large  Just a few years ago, though, Goldman was more an
embattled kingdom than an empire. Among rivals there was a
palpable sense that it was vulnerable. The firm's traditional
franchise - advising companies that were being sold or helping
companies go public - was being encroached on by larger banks
that would also lend those companies money. Goldman didn't want
to take that risk, and in truth, its balance sheet was too small
- small enough that Goldman was routinely mentioned as a
takeover target. "People were speculating, making book, on how
long we would survive as an independent company," Blankfein said
in London.  Today, as Blankfein relishes pointing out, the rap
is that Goldman is too big and too powerful. But it's more than
just a super-sized version of the former firm. Goldman, in a
comparison Blankfein likes to draw, remade itself into a modern,
and global, incarnation of