저자: JamieDimon · 외국인
요약 보기
제이미 다이먼이 해고 후 뱅크원 CEO로 복귀하고 JP모건과 합병해 회사를 재건한 과정을 회고한다. 경영 원칙으로 정직한 자기평가(good, bad, ugly 보고), 목표 설정, 정치적·관료적 임원 제거를 강조한다. 자산 가격 방향에 대한 예측이나 투자 조언은 없다.
다듬은 글
all your guys would come present and how they're doing here. And he was and he always had a very good way of saying uh that's not exactly the way it works. I forgot how he exactly did it, but it wasn't waste of time. Got right to the point. Was never rude. Tough, but never rude. Uh always evaluating the people, how they thought about a problem, how they thought about an issue, how they attacked the problem.
You know, you guys had tons of problems when we were there. And you know, each one how you attacked it. you know, you had the uh GM the the GMS problem, then the distributor went bankrupt and uh you know, all these things, but the real you learn in life, how did people deal with problems? The board was completely open.
It was a lot of fun. We went to taste your foods and you always took us to branches to restaurants and and you just learn how people think, you know, and even if you don't join the board, I'm not in any other board now. I tell people it's a really good thing to see how other people do things because I go to anything I go to where other cos are there or you know you know the business roundt or business council stuff that you've done I'm I'm taking notes when I hear someone did X said hm that's a neat idea you know why don't we do matter of fact at my board I still do since we last met so you did it every board meeting and I've been doing it every board meeting since bank one I I still do it today and it was your idea like how you and for those on podcast.
It was telling the board honestly everything important since you last met. Good, bad, ugly. It could be the product, the food, the tasting, the profits, the China business, the uh an honest assessment from the CEO, the like I said, the good, the bad, the ugly. And it's a great tool. I still type it out, you know, and I still keep it.
And in fact, I was speaking today about having some of my the people run the business years do it themselves since we last met as opposed to a presentation, you know, and uh so I still learn things from tons of other people how to do things better. And so you you you you were on the beach as they say in finance terms when you didn't have the job.
You come to the young board, you're working on that. What what process did you use and and what did you learn from it as you as you worked your way into the CEO job at uh bank one? I was very deliberate. Okay. So, I was fired in December. Uh, but I had to negotiate out. It took me till March or April.
So, I decided I'm going to take the summer off, take the kids around the world and, uh, and start kind of really thinking about September, but I did take a lot of phone calls. I gave I I took everyone respectfully. Some were, you could call almost insulting what they were offering me. Uh, I made sure the headunters knew I wanted to work, you know, the major folks out there.
When I came back in September and I was always polite and responsive to everyone, uh, you know, I had an office. I started seeing people all the time and I had ideas. I'm gonna start my own merchant bank. I wrote up documents. I spoke to people. I working with people, gain partners, kind of wild in the idea.
Didn't love it. I started I could have just been my own investor. Started talking to people. I went to see Cam Lone about what is it like? I I didn't love it. I went to um I thought about just teaching or writing uh you know uh fundamentally and you know I I realized I was ready I wasn't done with the big game yet and I and I had a lot of offers some were CEO some was you know I was offered to run the global investment bank of one of the big European uh investment banks one of the big European uh investment banks and I went there to see the people in London and had dinner with a bunch of them and after doing I said there's no way I'd work for these guys I mean Hank Greenberg called me up at AIG, you know, and I said, "Going from Sandy Wild to Hank Greenberg, you'd have to have your head examined.
Um, and Jeff Bezos, who I hit it off with in 1999, is looking for a president." And he and I hit it off. I still talk to him. He's an outstanding guy. Uh, I just, it was just a bridge too far for me. I didn't necessarily fully understand the business. I had to move a couple family to Seattle. I love the idea of never putting a suit on again, you know, getting a house boat somewhere.
And there are tons of others that people actually spoke to me about, but it came down at the time to Home Depot and Bank One. And Home Depot, I love those people. I thought Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, I went down. I running with Blank and and uh uh and and Ken Langone. They did these bees. But I when I first met them, I said, "Just just so you guys know, I want you to know this.
Until you called me, I'd never been in a Home Depot." I said, "So, it's not this. It's not my natural habitat merchant." And and they were very much like, "We don't care about that. You'll learn. We want the guy with the heart and the soul and you know, you know, the way they think." Uh, and I went to stores with them and stuff like that.
And I actually shopped houses in Atlanta. I mean, you know, we were taking it seriously. Uh, looked at school for the kids. And then Bank One was there. And Bank One, as you know, as you know, was a troubled Midwestern bank and probably would have surprised people. I went to it, but it was my natural habitat.
You know, I when I look at a trading book or a loan book, I mean, I'm used to I wasn't used to all the business they had. Uh, moving to Chicago is going to be hard. Uh, but I wasn't done yet. And, you know, they offered me a chairman CEO and I decided I put half my net worth into at the time. I was kind of I tied my my uh my shoes to it.
I was going to go with the ship or not. And very much like we did with Sandy Wild back at Commercial Mcredit Prim America. Build it. Make it what you can. Build something great. Don't cry over spilled milk. You know, I still I still deal with a lot of CEOs who they complain about their own companies endlessly, you know, and and I always like, you know, you know, put your pants on.
I mean, just grow up. The world was never perfect. You were, no one ever said they're going to hand you, you know, everything on a silver platter. Business is tough. People disappoint you, you know, and uh so I decided to go for that. They made me chairman CEO. I put half my money in, moved the family.
Uh I called you up, got you on the board. I needed some fresh blood on the board. Uh that was that was a lot of fun watching what you did there. It was great. And and then you know you you turned around Bank One. Uh it was a great success story and JP Morgan Chase decides to to come and acquire uh Bank One.
What what what did you learn orchestrating that with uh uh with the JP Morgan Chase CEO at the time, Bill Harrison? I how did you how did you bring it all together? Yeah. So, Bill Harrison had been not my direct banker, but would I knew him from way way back and as you know, Bill's a real quality guy.
And so, we did that deal at the end of the summer of uh of 04, 2004, but he and I had started talking in 02 or 03 and I go see him regularly. And I had told you guys in the board that that there are two or three very natural merges for us. One was Fleet and one was JP Morgan Chase and and uh JP Morgan Chase fell by the wayside because it gotten too big and they bought Chase and but because Bank One did better and better and they were having some tough times.
It kind of came in that target range again and so I went to see Bill and Bill and I kept on talking. He said to me at one point, "Hey, you know, I can't do a deal now. My Cheryls will kill me, but it's so natural. I don't have a successor really. um you know would you promise me that you will call me if you're ever going to do something and I told him Bill I cannot promise that but I understand about the industrial logic and he and I started talking about the industrial logic the people uh now in reality it was it was it was called he called it a merge of equals we got the premium but we also got the control if you remember correctly the I was ordained to be the CEO literally from day one so I wasn't the CO from day one but the board was going to be 5050 uh and I I was going to be the CEO in two years unless 80 unless 75% of the board said no.
So that meant four of my directors have to vote against me. And you may remember the last minute there was a little fight at the board our board. You guys were at dinner at my house in Chicago and you know we had Oh, I was a big part of that fight as a matter of fact. Yeah. Like but some people like don't do the deal.
You can't trust these New Yorkers. Oh you can't if Jamie can't be the CEO day one we can't do the Well, that was a good reason to keep the keep keep it in Chicago. I mean, that was they were coming up with all kinds of reasons, you know, and I said I said, "Look, if Jamie can't work with uh Bill Harrison for two years, then there's something wrong with Jamie Diamond." That's correct.
And uh they said, "Well, you you remember I for I'm not going to mention his name." He said, "But well, you've never been in a boardroom, you know, like that. You you're you're missing something here." I said, "Well, I do have a hell of a lot of common sense." And you know, there's a big fight, but anyway, the rest is history.
Yeah, you you're you're absolutely correct. and you make a judgment call in life and that we all thought we could I knew I could trust Bill Harrison and he wanted to leave they needed a successor and they needed someone who was going to run it and so the com neither bank one had just gone from being a terrible company to a mediocre company you know Chase JB and Chase was part of it a lot of deals taking place but it never completely performed so in reality we're putting but the industrial logic was perfect two not great credit card companies and credit card north economy scale put together.
We had a great retail system. They didn't, but they had great branches in New York. You know, we both had middle market businesses. They had a investment bank. We didn't, but we could bring those products and services to the clients around the United States. They were global. We were not. And we just started working it like literally just been and I remember starting these like you've had the business reviews by business payment systems ops uh uh by country by investment banking middle market banking consumer banking credit card and never said we're going to transform.
It just went to work at making it a better company being honest assessment setting real targets for ourselves about what we should be performing removing the management that was political and bureaucratic. But Bill and I spoke all the time. Like I I was running most of that stuff, but he was completely supportive.
In fact, there was one time that a at a meeting of someone said, you know, Jamie was very rude at this meeting we had. I was criticizing him for these insurance deals they thought they were doing to protect the company from auto warranties. Uh and he went on and on that Jamie did this and and Bill said, "Uh, excuse me.
Uh, that did not happen." He said, "Well, I you weren't there." and he said I was I was in the back of the room and he was asking me a lot of very good and smart and tough questions and you know Bill was a little surprised the how deep I went to all these businesses and at one point he said to me are you going to do this all the time I yeah I said pretty much I leave you know you know very often he didn't always agree with this stuff I was doing B say it's your company you know you're going to be co in a couple months whatever but then it came to one guy that I wanted to ask leave who I thought was a great politician but a complete self-s server.
Uh, you know, took care of his, you know, the buddies of this and was kind of a hatchet man for Bill himself. And I went to see Bill. I said, "He's got to go." And Bill said, "Well, I totally disagree with you. He's been a key here, blah, blah, and I went home that night. I came back in the next day and I said, "Bill, I am we we've done everything together here.
I'm really uncomfortably completely disagree. I would feel much more comfortable if you go ask some of the other senior management people about what I said. Is he trusted? Is this is that? And Bill to his credit went out and spoke to four or five people and came back and said you were right and I should have known.
And uh so we were kind of locked step every step of the way he did and even you know since even since he left which is now you know almost 20 years ago you know he's been anything he could do to help and even guys like the guy who ran um Dennis Weatherstone I don't know if you knew him had been a former CEO of of JP Morgan itself you called me up in Ada boy every quarter you know I mean there's some very sweet guys out there John B McCoy you know the called a guy who started bank one and start what l went from one branch to whatever a thousand.
He would come see me every now and then just to say you're doing a great job kid. That's great. You know one of the things that you know being on the board and watching you in action. You know you you establish gold standards not within the financial industry but also other other categories that might be better at processing or you you pick whatever measure that you're you were going after and you really drove those gold standards home.
And you talk about working it. You know, if somebody asks you about strategy in those days, you say, "I don't really care about that strategy." You know, I'm not, you know, I'm our strategy is always changing.
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