NYT lead business article on JPM departures
Everything said here is biased and dated. Some of it is correct in my opinion and some is just uninformed speculation. I am ten years removed from the company but still know much about some of the people and follow it closely, for personal and financial reasons.
The lead businesss article in today's NYT details the many executive departures from JPM in the last year or two, with photos of ten at the top. No criticism of the NYT on this one for the most part, it's a worthy news article. Please let me get straight to the background on those ten.
On the positive side, it has already been written here that the removal of the marginally competent but talented self promoting James Staley was way overdue. Steve Black was a really nice man with significant connections in the corporate community, but his main focus had long morphed into his wealth and his car collection. He was a contributor and a friend of Dimon's, but not the driver of corporate success that he once was. Heidi Miller was a success whose persona seemed to exceed her talent, smart and administratively savvy, but no hands on action and I guess with no growth possibilities. Ina Drew was a huge loss. She was an exceptional talent who never flaunted her talents. Ultimately the responsibility for the huge London trading loss fell on her, but that London crowd hid their trades from everyone and she had no way to act on it. This leads to the earlier loss of Bill Winters, who was the most talented executive by far from JPM to arrive at the combined firm. Winters ran Europe capital markets, and if he had been there this would have never happened. Whether his direct responsibility or not, he was a capital markets junkie who kept tabs on everything. Whatever happened between him and Dimon, from afar I would rank that as Dimon's biggest mistake. Bill Daley was just a political hire, no real banking experience, just corporate relationship experience in general and it did not work at all with Congress.
So those are the ones that my opinions, right or wrong, are clearly expressed here. The other four departures were Dimon associates from Citi or Bank One or both, and all seemed by most accounts talented. I do not have any way to judge their departures as never had contact. There's an analogy that comes to mind, especially with the most recent departure of the seemingly important Frank Bisgnano and this may apply to the three others whose careers have not been followed here.
If in the NFL there is an offensive or defensive coordinator who works for a winning team and a good coach, it is normal that they may be a candidate for a head coaching job elsewhere. It's just personal nature to want to be the man in charge. Dimon has been that winning coach and he has had some exceptional coordinators. As challenging as it could be in the short term for JPM, these losses could have been expected. If the ladder of delegation and learning has been maintained, the challenge might be minimal. At times, change is actually good as it allows talent that has not been fully used to flow up. It can build an ongoing institution instead of a group of stars that throttle development.
These are just personal thoughts, never scripted here until sitting at the computer. Their value is for others to judge.
The lead businesss article in today's NYT details the many executive departures from JPM in the last year or two, with photos of ten at the top. No criticism of the NYT on this one for the most part, it's a worthy news article. Please let me get straight to the background on those ten.
On the positive side, it has already been written here that the removal of the marginally competent but talented self promoting James Staley was way overdue. Steve Black was a really nice man with significant connections in the corporate community, but his main focus had long morphed into his wealth and his car collection. He was a contributor and a friend of Dimon's, but not the driver of corporate success that he once was. Heidi Miller was a success whose persona seemed to exceed her talent, smart and administratively savvy, but no hands on action and I guess with no growth possibilities. Ina Drew was a huge loss. She was an exceptional talent who never flaunted her talents. Ultimately the responsibility for the huge London trading loss fell on her, but that London crowd hid their trades from everyone and she had no way to act on it. This leads to the earlier loss of Bill Winters, who was the most talented executive by far from JPM to arrive at the combined firm. Winters ran Europe capital markets, and if he had been there this would have never happened. Whether his direct responsibility or not, he was a capital markets junkie who kept tabs on everything. Whatever happened between him and Dimon, from afar I would rank that as Dimon's biggest mistake. Bill Daley was just a political hire, no real banking experience, just corporate relationship experience in general and it did not work at all with Congress.
So those are the ones that my opinions, right or wrong, are clearly expressed here. The other four departures were Dimon associates from Citi or Bank One or both, and all seemed by most accounts talented. I do not have any way to judge their departures as never had contact. There's an analogy that comes to mind, especially with the most recent departure of the seemingly important Frank Bisgnano and this may apply to the three others whose careers have not been followed here.
If in the NFL there is an offensive or defensive coordinator who works for a winning team and a good coach, it is normal that they may be a candidate for a head coaching job elsewhere. It's just personal nature to want to be the man in charge. Dimon has been that winning coach and he has had some exceptional coordinators. As challenging as it could be in the short term for JPM, these losses could have been expected. If the ladder of delegation and learning has been maintained, the challenge might be minimal. At times, change is actually good as it allows talent that has not been fully used to flow up. It can build an ongoing institution instead of a group of stars that throttle development.
These are just personal thoughts, never scripted here until sitting at the computer. Their value is for others to judge.
posted by John Borden at 8:42 AM
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