Product Description

A behind–the–scenes look at Wall Street′s top banker

Jamie Dimon is Wall Street′s biggest player. Following the 11th–hour rescue of Bear Stearns by JP Morgan, his profile has reached stratospheric levels. The House of Dimon goes behind the scenes to recount the amazing events that shaped Dimon′s career, including his rise to prominence as Sandy Weill′s protégé at Citigroup, only to be fired and denied the top spot; his orchestration of the JP Morgan acquisition of BankOne, a deal that brought Dimon back to Wall Street as CEO of JP Morgan; and the drama surrounding the purchase of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual–two opportunistic deals that helped avert government bailouts. Lively and engaging, the book provides insider accounts of how Dimon successfully integrated acquired companies; reorganized underperforming units; created efficiencies; and grew bottom–line results as the consummate hands–on manager. Through interviews with Dimon, Weill, JP Morgan board members, and people who worked with Dimon, readers will gain insight into Dimon′s management style and his ability to inspire outstanding performance. Most importantly, the book explains Dimon in the context of contemporary Wall Street, an environment that has destroyed several top CEOs and led to the demise of several major financial institutions. Dimon has flourished by avoiding alluring, but potentially catastrophic risks and taking advantage of strategic opportunities. During one of the most difficult and tumultuous periods in Wall Street history, he has survived and thrived. The House of Dimon shows how he′s done it and explores what lies ahead for Dimon, as he attempts to grow JP Morgan in the face of the unrelenting pressures of Wall Street.

Patricia Crisafulli (Chicago, IL) is an accomplished writer and author who has written or ghost–written 16 books on business, finance, and leadership. A former business journalist, she was a correspondent in the Chicago bureau of Reuters America. Crisafulli has written articles for the "Leisure & Arts" page of the Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on television and radio across the country.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #205989 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
"It is easy to read and brings together events in the financial markets over the past 40 years that are helpful to review and reflect upon" (Seeking Alpha)

"Crisafulli goes behind the scenes to recount the amazing events that have shaped Dimon′s career" (CEO Middle East, April 2009)

"…anyone who reads Ms. Crisafulli’s fiduciary love letter will take away some valuable lessons in running a bank—or, for that matter, a business." (The Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2009)

Review
"Crisafulli goes behind the scenes to recount the amazing events that have shaped Dimon′s career" (CEO Middle East, April 2009)

From the Inside Flap
Jamie Dimon is Wall Street′s biggest player. Following the eleventh–hour rescue of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan, his profile has reached stratospheric levels. And while the deals and decisions he′s made have usually turned out to be the right ones, his journey to the top of the financial world has been anything but easy.

Now, in The House of Dimon, business writer Patricia Crisafulli goes behind the scenes to recount the amazing events that have shaped Dimon′s career, including his rise to prominence as Sandy Weill′s protégé at Citigroup, only to be fired and denied the top spot; his orchestration of the JPMorgan acquisition of BankOne, a deal that brought Dimon back to Wall Street as CEO of JPMorgan; and the drama surrounding the purchase of Bear Stearns, which helped avert a government bailout, and the strategic acquisition of Washington Mutual.

Through interviews with Dimon, Weill, JPMorgan board members, and colleagues who′ve known Dimon over the course of his career, you′ll gain rare access to one of today′s savviest financial figures. Each step of the way, this engaging book provides insider accounts of how Dimon successfully acquired and integrated companies; reorganized underperforming units; created efficiencies; and grew bottom–line results as the consummate hands–on manager.

Most importantly, Crisafulli places Dimon in the context of contemporary Wall Street—an environment that has destroyed several top CEOs and led to the demise of numerous major financial institutions—and shows you how Dimon′s management style, ability to inspire outstanding performance, and talent for taking calculated risks have allowed him to excel where many others have failed.

Jamie Dimon has flourished by avoiding alluring, but potentially catastrophic risks and taking advantage of strategic opportunities. During one of the most difficult and tumultuous periods in Wall Street history, he has survived and thrived. The House of Dimon reveals how he′s done it and explores what lies ahead for Dimon, as he attempts to grow JPMorgan in the face of the unrelenting pressures of Wall Street. 

Customer Reviews

A poor account of why Jamie Dimon has succeeded when so many of his investment banking colleagues have failed
There are a number of reasons why I didn't enjoy reading this book. I am sure Jamie Dimon is a very talented and clever man but this book doesn't really tell us why.

Firstly it is very repetitive. The author seems to think that by telling us numerous times that Jamie Dimon was fired by his long time boss Sandy Weill when he was at Citigroup reinforces the message but it is just annoying. There are many other instances of repetition over certain messages, i.e. the purchase of Bear Stearns over a weekend.

The author is very keen to remind us of who is being quoted so sometimes we are told that someone's job titles or where they worked with Jamie with a gap of just 6 pages. This starts to get very irritating as it's the same people being quoted time after time. The book has an index so if you can't remember who someone is you can just look back to the page where they first appeared.

It is not very balanced. The only people who have contributed have either worked for him for a long time, or alongside him. There are a number of quotes from people who continue to sit on the same boards as Jamie, so these are very very unlikely to say anything controversial. There are no quotes or comments from Jamie's peer group competition. The authors web site (which obviously hasn't been updated since the book has obviously now been published) says the book will feature "interviews with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, former Citigroup Chair Sandy Weill, and many more prominent Wall Street executives and insiders." Well it obviously wasn't a long interview with Sandy as he is just quoted 2-3 times. Whilst Jamie seems to be a very talented man, it is hard to know just how good he is when there is nothing even slightly bad written about him. The author does quote him when he admits to making mistakes but these seem to be few and far between. The book is so one sided that it would not surprise me if Jamie paid the author to write it, but the way she describes him as being so brilliant and flawless he would have had no reason to do this!

It is a very short book (less than 220 pages of actual content) and whilst that's not necessarily a bad thing if the content is focussed but with the repetition of some of the events and peoples job or titles it doesn't feel like there is actually much content. Much is made of what a brilliant job Jamie made of turning round Bank One, where he worked after leaving Citigroup. There is some description of how he starts the job but there is a period of 2-3 years before Bank One is taken over by JP Morgan which is covered in the space of 1-2 pages most of which is the financial data.

2 of the reviews on the back of the book are by people who have contributed significantly to the book, who are long time friends and colleagues of Jamie, so the chances of them saying anything but glowing praise are fairly limited!

I am not sure how well researched the book was. It suggests that the reason why JP Morgan increased it offer for Bear Stearns from $2 to $10 was simply to keep the shareholders happy but another book I read on the demise of Bear Stearns House of Cards: How Wall Street's Gamblers Broke Capitalism: The Fall of Bear Stearns and the Collapse of the Global Market suggests that the reason was there were problems in the wording of the guarantee agreement.

If you are looking for an interesting, well researched, easy to read, balanced book about a leading Wall Street figure then I don't think this will be for you. If you are looking for a short, repetitive book that is a one sided fawning view from a sycophant, look no further.

Non-insightful, dis-ordered description of Dimon
Poorly written review of non-insightful information about Jamie Dimon.
Nearly all of the information comes from public information (either JPM or Bank One annual reports, Dimon's appearances in business schools almost a decade ago, etc).

It's surprising that it was written by an accomplished journalist. And unfortunate not to be better give the amazing figure Jamie Dimon is.