Includes interviews with Dimon himself, Sandy Weill, and colleagues who''ve known Dimon over the course of his
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction xvii
Part One: In the Eye of the Storm
Chapter 1 The Dimon Way 3
Running the House of Dimon 7
The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Jamie Dimon 10
What You See Is What You Get 14
Straight Talk about a Credit Crisis 15
Never, Ever Forget the Downside 18
A Culture of Transparency 20
Doing What It Takes to Get the Job Done 23
Chapter 2 Taking a Bear-Sized Bite 25
No Ordinary Deal 27
Presenting the Deal to Shareholders 29
Step-by-Step Through the Deal That Changed Everything 32
Reining In the Risks 41
On Dimon’s Shoulders 42
Part Two: The Making of a Wall Street Leader
Chapter 3 The Weill Years: In the Trenches 49
The Making of Jamie Dimon 52
The Market in His Blood 53
Going to Work for Weill 56
The Rise of Sandy Weil 58
In the Trenches at Commercial Credit 60
Buying Primerica—A New Second Chance 65
Chapter 4 A Force on Wall Street 71
Primerica Grows 74
A New Team for a New Corporate Entity 77
Growing Tensions 80
The Deal of Deals 85
The Firing of Jamie Dimon 89
Chapter 5 The Recruitment of Jamie Dimon 91
Life after Citigroup 92
Bank One’s Search for a CEO 95
The New Bank One CEO 102
Taking Over as CEO 105
A House Divided 107
The Beginning of a New Culture of Accountability 108
Chapter 6 The Turnaround of Bank One 111
New Players for the Team 113
Welcome to Boot Camp 116
Taking It to the Street 117
Turning Around Bank One 119
Straight Talk from the New CEO 128
The Fortress Balance Sheet Debut 129
Restoring Profitability 130
Chapter 7 Back on Wall Street 133
The House of Morgan 136
The Deal That Almost Didn’t Happen 139
Delving into JPMorgan Chase 142
Dimon Takes Over 146
The Storm of 2007 150
The Wall Street Statesman 151
Part Three: Weathering the Storm
Chapter 8 The Dimon Fortress 155
Strong Defense, Strategic Offense 157
The Signature Phrase 158
It Always Pays to Be Prepared 159
No Resting on the Laurels 162
Advice and a History Lesson 164
Stress Testing Assets 165
Having Real Capital 166
The Long-Term View 170
Chapter 9 Taking Over WaMu: A Sign of the Times 171
Welcome WaMu 173
Washington Mutual Runs into Trouble 175
A Strategic Fit for JPMorgan 176
“First-Class” Banking Meets “Whoo Hoo!” 179
A Somber Picture 180
Failure and Takeover: A Sign of the Times 182
More Acquisitions in the Future? 186
Waiting for What Comes Next 187
Chapter 10 Navigating Financial Storms 189
A Brief Postmortem of a Complicated Crisis 191
Bubbles Are Trouble 192
Even the Best Model Can’t Predict Everything 195
Blame the Underwriting 196
Launch New Products Cautiously 199
Risk at One Firm Affects Others 200
More Regulation Is Coming 201
Bolder, Braver Leaders 203
Chapter 11 A Wall Street Statesman 209
The Hard Work of Being a Leader 211
Family, Humanity, and Then JPMorgan 212
Loyal—to the End 217
Notes 219
About the Author 233
Index 235
