2009-10 Jamie Dimon, General Interest Article

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FOR
THOSE CURIOUS ABOUT JAMIE DIMON.


Jon Friedman's Media Web

Oct. 7, 2009, 12:01 a.m. EDT

How Jamie Dimon escaped Sandy Weill's shadow

Commentary: Author Duff McDonald explains in 'Last Man Standing'
By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Financial journalist Duff McDonald covers a lot of ground in "Last Man Standing," his new biography of J.P. Morgan Chase's well-respected chief executive officer. He explains well how Jamie Dimon rose to be widely acknowledged as the new king of Wall Street.

But for many Wall Streeters, the good stuff in "Last Man Standing," published by Simon & Schuster, will involve Dimon's tangled relationship with former mentor and Citigroup boss, Sandy Weill. It could be argued that Weill made Dimon. Had Dimon been a lesser man, Weill could ultimately have broken him, too.

It's one of the most intriguing relationships in Wall Street annals. Weill towered over Dimon for much of his life. When Dimon was growing up, his father worked as a broker for Weill's firm.

After Dimon graduated from Harvard Business School, he worked side by side with Weill. Their highly successful association lasted for more than a decade and helped propel the Citigroup behemoth to success.

Then, Weill stunned the investment community -- and, McDonald points out, Dimon himself -- when he unexpectedly forced Dimon out in 1998. Showing grit and resilience, Dimon re-established himself in the ensuing decade.

One reason I remain so fascinated by the Weill-Dimon partnership is that I covered it closely during the 1980s and 1990s, spending many hours with both men. At one time, Weill was a senior executive at American Express and Dimon assisted him. (McDonald interviewed me during his research and quoted from "House of Cards: Inside the Troubled Empire of American Express," a book I co-wrote in the early 1990s.)

Emotional saga

McDonald recognized that Dimon would be guarded when it came time for him to talk about his saga with Weill. Shrewdly, the author intentionally waited to address this thorny subject until the very end of his research effort.

"I saved 'Sandy and Jamie' for last, mainly because I wanted to achieve a level of comfort with Dimon," McDonald told me over breakfast last week.

Wall Street is littered with the tales of mentors and protégés whose partnerships collapsed after a run of great success. Still, this saga seems particularly acrimonious to this day.

"They don't have a relationship anymore," McDonald said. "Jamie was hurt profoundly by what happened. His feelings about it don't seem to have dissipated."

McDonald was struck by the difference in Dimon's tone when he shifted from discussing the art of doing deals to his apparent sense of betrayal.

"Jamie can talk about the business all day long," McDonald told me. "But this was about his feelings and the relationship. It's more emotional for him."

When Dimon talked about Weill, McDonald chalked it up as one of the moments in his research when he sat there, listened and thought, "Wow!"
"I had no idea he could summon so much emotion about something that
happened a decade ago," he said.

As McDonald skillfully told the story, I thought of a similar failed relationship in pro football between Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. Dimon makes a compelling comparison to Belichick. When Parcells coached the New York Giants to two Super Bowl titles, Belichick was his defensive coordinator.

Belichick, like Dimon, toiled loyally in his boss's shadow for several years. Could Belichick flourish by himself? When he got a shot at coaching the New England Patriots on his own, he led the team to three Super Bowl titles, prompting some observers to conclude that the student had outclassed the teacher.

It's an intriguing point: Likewise, has J.P. Morgan Chase's Dimon surpassed Weill on Wall Street?

"The answer is, 'Absolutely,'" McDonald said. "However, as Sandy's career has shown, things can always turn in the wrong direction. Everyone thought Sandy was a legend and a visionary until recently."

And will Dimon's star diminish eventually?

"I think he is too smart to hang on [for] too long," McDonald said.

Reporting challenges


A book tracing Dimon's still-evolving career presented many reporting challenges for McDonald. To write a successful volume -- one that would garner favorable reviews and sell well in the marketplace -- McDonald would have to:

• gain access to Dimon, his family and his inner circle,
• get Dimon to open up,
• go beyond the sycophantic headlines and present a balanced account and
• capture the story of a moving target, a dynamic business leader whose legend is constantly taking on fresh dimensions before our eyes.

Dimon has constructed J.P. Morgan Chase as one of the most durable and admired financial firms in the world. He has opportunistically acquired troubled firms with once-great reputations on the cheap, steadfastly avoided risky investments and inspired fierce loyalty in his management team -- all qualities that Weill embodied in his prime.

Meddlesome columnist that I am, I asked McDonald why he didn't devote the whole story in his book to Weill and Dimon. I could envision a movie, starring, say, Dustin Hoffman or Al Pacino as Weill and Tom Cruise or Matt Damon as Dimon.

McDonald nodded and perked up. "I should talk to my agent about a movie," he said with a smile.

Copyright © 2009 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved.

[Evan Bedard]

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