JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Speaks at Spangler Auditorium
Written by Business Analyst
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 07:30
The HBS Finance Club was honored to have Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, give an engaging speech in a packed Spangler Auditorium on Tuesday, November 6, 2007. Jamie gave a great speech, making the audience of about 300 HBS students often laugh with his war stories from his career.
As a JPMorgan employee prior to HBS, I already had the honor to meet and listen to Jamie before this event and looked forward to inviting him to the HBS campus to share his views. As an HBS Class of 1982, he was happy to come back to campus, a short time after his attendance of the 25th year alumni reunion. It was no disappointment - it was one of the best speeches that I have been to on campus, which was not only my opinion. I summarize some of the points he touched on during his speech in this article.
Jamie started off with turning around the table. Instead of beginning a speech right away, he asked the audience what questions they would like to have answered. These initial 5-7 questions covered what he learned from his boss at Citigroup Sandy Weill, career changing moments, Bank One and JPMorgan Chase stories, leadership, whether he wanted to be a CEO and the subprime crisis. This initial session was followed by a regular Q&A at the end.
On Sandy Weill
Jamie learned a lot from Sandy Weill, though not a "mentoring type" person, and described him as a person who took chances, seized opportunities and had a good feel for things.. An interesting fact was that after Jamie left Citigroup and had lunch with Weill, the Financial Times had a cover story on that.
On career changing moments
The first thing Jamie mentioned was "luck," which he believes is an integral part of one's career. After his departure from Citigroup, Jamie did not work for a year and a half, thinking about what to do next. He thought about private equity and other options, was considered for Home Depot and other firms as CEO. He ruled out PE as he would have missed the action of being a CEO.
On Bank One
When Jamie took on the position as CEO at Bank One, and analyzed it, he realized the company was in in need of a turnaround. The Bank One management team and employees knew that there were issues that needed to be fixed, but no action was taken. Jamie started cutting several benefits like company cars and had to lay off 10,000-15,000 people. When bonuses for the management team were discussed, Jamie asked them how much they should get. The management team was thinking a cut of 5-10% would be enough. Jamie suggested bonuses of $0 and even offered not to take his guaranteed bonus. He viewed himself as "captain of the ship" and wanted to set an example. He turned the company around such that JPMorgan Chase became interested in a friendly merger, in which they wanted to keep Jamie and the rest of the management team of Bank One on board.
On JPMorgan Chase
Jamie jokingly said that JPMorgan Chase viewed the merger as buying Bank One, with Jamie taking control and them paying for it. When Jamie came in, he realized that there were ways to make JPMorgan Chase more efficient. It started with the IT systems that were not integrated so that conversions and infrastructure consolidations had to happen. He had to make decisions on consolidating these systems. Furthermore, margins were below where they should have been and the organization was bloated. Jamie made the necessary cuts - about $3-4 billion in expenses.
On Leadership
On Wall Street, management tries to find someone who is to blame and is accountable if something goes wrong or results are worse than expected. In corporate headquarters, it is easy to blame others. Jamie's view on leadership is quite the opposite: it is based on helping others. A good leader has to step in and ask the subordinates "what can I do to help?" Furthermore, coupled with high performance standards, people will want to work for such a leader.
On the subprime crisis
Jamie has a long-term positive view on the global financial markets. True, the subprime crisis has affected the credit and mortgage markets: "the credit markets froze a little bit". However, the equities, FX, fixed income and commodities markets are still functioning well. The current crisis is a typical crisis in the financial markets, which happens about every five years. On JPMorgan Chase, the bank has still a lot of risk but no SIV (Structured Investment Vehicle) exposure like that found at other banks and thus is in a good position to take advantage of times like this. That said, banks have to worry all the time. At JPMorgan Chase, there are about 150 trading desks that have to hold inventories and that have to be able to serve clients, irrespective of the market environment.
On competition
There is not one single competitor to fear most. One bank is better at one particular area than the other and vice versa. The competition thus occurs at the product level. To beat competition, the marketing to customers has to be right, and one has to hire good people - people to trust.
On wanting to become CEO
It is hard to aspire to be CEO. According to Jamie, one has to do the next job well - until the next job becomes that of CEO. However, he shared a story about his HBS classmate Jeff Immelt who was in his wife Judy's section. Many people said that at some point, Jeff Immelt would be CEO of GE. That is what I call self-fulfilling prophecy.
On what he would have done differently
Jamie admitted that he has had a temper during his career, which he would have liked to managed differently, as bad temper is bad. An additional piece of advice was to say no if no is the right answer. Furthermore, when trying to find a solution, the answer is waiting to be found and is there half the time.
On work/life balance and family
Jamie believes that the family has to come first. He wanted us to make sure to think about family and the partner as marriage and kids are the hardest thing in life, not a job or the career. The way he manages to keep the relationship strong is by spending as much time with his family as possible. For example, instead of playing golf with other senior people (Jamie does not play golf), he played tennis with one of his three daughters. More harshly said, if a young parent plays golf, then that would be "neglecting the family." Once Jamie left a executive council meeting to be able to spend more time with his family, implying "as much as I like you [the council], I don't love you [the council]."
On employee morale
Jamie also touched on employee morale. At some point at American Express, where Jamie started his career after his graduation from HBS in 1982, employee morale was low. Management suggested giving an extra cash bonus to employees but morale did not improve, it may even have decreased. Thus, money is not the main motivator for employee morale.
Conclusion
Jamie concluded with an investment banking joke, which went something like follows: The investment banker is speaking to the devil from hell. The devil says "I give you all the money and prestige. I just want one thing in return: your soul." The investment banker thinks for a few minutes and says "what's the catch?"
To sum it up, Jamie's speech was great, captivating the audience, and to be remembered.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 November 2009 09:59
Think "I" instead of "We" when Talking about Your Business Analyst Career
Written by Business Analyst
Monday, 16 November 2009 01:19
Written by Laura Brandenburg
Picture yourself in an interview for your dream business analyst job. You are confident in your qualifications. You have prepared for the interview by researching the company, the hiring manager, and anyone else with whom you are meeting.
The manager asks you a few questions about your experience with a focus on business analysis. You answer confidently about how your team accomplished exactly what they were asked to do. You give an example. But the manager still looks at you a bit puzzled and probes for more information. She or he doesn't seem to fully trust your answer.
One possible cause of this situation is that you are using "we" in your answers instead of "I". You are a team player. You know that as a business analyst you help teams achieve great results. You focus your answers on what the team accomplished. This is a great way to look at your day-to-day work. But in an interview situation, the hiring manager is interviewing you not your team. Answers talking about "we" seem vague, are ambiguous, and can leave the impression that you are avoiding the questions.
From my own personal experience as a hiring manager for business analysts, one particular candidate among the many I interviewed with the "we" tendency, stands out among the rest. I share his story to help the other candidates out there who may unknowingly be facing his same challenges.
The candidate's answers to my questions revealed a strong team orientation and other professional qualities that I respected and desired, but when it came to his BA qualifications, I couldn't quite nail him down. In answer to every question about every project, he started the answer with "we". We created a requirements document. We came up with an elegant solution. We implemented a successful project. We, we, we.
Truly liking the individual, I started probing and prodding then finally asked, "I understand what your team accomplished and that's great. It's important for me to understand what you contributed. What did you do, specifically, to help the team accomplish that success?" Unfortunately the candidate failed to come up with an answer and defended his "we" stance: "My contributions were only part of the team. That success was impossible without the whole team." Although my gut said he was a good candidate for the position, I couldn't validate his BA qualifications with any hard evidence. He was not hired.
I want to help you avoid this same shortfall. The difficulty is that his answer is true and valid. We accomplish more as part of a team. No matter how we think about it, we are not solely responsible for the outcomes we achieve as part of a group. But the career-defining questions remain unanswered: What did you do? Why should I hire you? Why should I believe that you will make a contribution on one of the teams in this organization?
In preparing to speak about what your team accomplished and what you contributed to help your team succeed, it can be helpful to keep a catalog of your projects and accomplishments. For example, let's consider a requirements document. There is no doubt that significant project documents, such as a business requirements document or functional specifications, are the result of contributions from many individuals. When evaluating this experience for your contribution, think about the following activities:
Did you author the document? Alternatively, did you edit a document started by someone else? Did you solicit feedback on the document and collate comments and reviews? Did you elicit the requirements and ask the questions that ensured the document was complete? Did you facilitate the meetings, pointing out disparate input or conflicting requirements? What else did you do?
While the document you produced is the collective output of the team, it's likely you had a very distinct role in that accomplishment. Catalog your specific contributions and be prepared to speak about them in detail.
Alternatively, if you were part of a BA team, you might consider quantifying your part in that team. For example, if the team collectively produced 50 use cases, maybe you drafted 20 of those use cases and provided critical feedback on the other 30. Can you think of an example where your feedback addressed a problem no one else had considered? Maybe you owned a part of the review or approval process. Maybe you owned the use case list and model.
Another way to think about this concept is to answer the following question: What hole would have been left if you had been plucked from the team? Looking at the team trying to achieve its objective without your efforts, analysis, and influence can help you see the situation with a fresh set of eyes. It can help you identify your slice in the team's overall effort.
It's also possible to use this approach to explaining your experiences while still showing you are a team player. One of the line items on my resume talks about a career experience from my early days as a QA engineer. I entered into a situation where developers across two different locations were often at odds with each other about the root cause of defects and who should fix them. I partnered with the developers from the other location, began testing their output directly, and helped drive more effective communication between the groups.
In my resume, I speak about breaking down communication barriers to reduce the length of time it took to resolve a particular category of defects. Of course, I did not single-handedly fix the issues, nor was I the only contributor to the improved success of this group of people. Every member of the team had a critical role in that improvement. But I am confident in calling myself out as the catalyst and talking about my role in bridging the communication gap, an accomplishment that helped carve my path into the business analysis profession.
So I ask you. What do you have to say for yourself and your career? Are you a career casualty to the ambiguity of "we"? If so, I challenge you to start a catalog of your recent projects and think long and hard about your contributions. This is a great step to take to advance your business analyst career.
Why on Earth Would You Promote a Business Analyst?
Written by Business Analyst
Saturday, 24 October 2009 05:00
We have a recommendation. Whether their official titles are Business Analyst, Product Intelligence Analyst, Requirements Analyst or something else, if they define and manage requirements as a core function of their jobs, then they are strong candidates for a promotion. Think this is a crazy request during this bad, but they tell us, improving, economy? Maybe it's not such a bad idea at all!
Read on to understand the five reasons why senior executives at innovation-driven organizations are realizing how strategically important business analysts are to the overall success of their companies. And, they are rewarding those who excel in this role. We'll leave it to the bosses to decide exactly how they want to spread the love - bonuses, parking spots or other perks are always nice.
In many places the Business Analyst role doesn't get much appreciation, because its value is misunderstood or viewed just as a tactical role. Let's debunk those myths here by examining the important role the BA has throughout the organization.
They are Shepherds of Innovation
As you know, innovation isn't just a hyper-buzzword. Innovation is what customers demand, it's what shareholders expect. And it's what helps fatten the coffers of most successful corporations. How many nights do you lie awake thinking about how to more effectively deliver innovative products to market faster than the competition?
As unsexy and tactical as "requirements management" sounds and maybe is perceived, it is the foundation of an organization's ability to innovate. As business analysts, these employees are your shepherds of innovation. Try that sound bite out at your next company meeting and see how the morale and company culture changes to embrace this important function.
Project Success Lives or Dies by Requirements Management.
This isn't meant as a statement to create dramatic effect - study after study shows that the management of requirements is a top success factor. If you work in an industry such as Aerospace, Medical Devices or Healthcare where safety isn't optional, then requirements management is itself a mandated requirement. Based on that, it seems reasonable to suggest that anyone who manages a function that's this critical to the success of your company deserves some kudos. For example, the newly published Business Analysis Benchmark Study by IAG Consulting highlights several major findings, including:
Companies with poor requirements, on average, spend $2.24 million more per project on strategic projects than those that employ requirements best practices.
Companies with poor requirements and business analysis capability have three project failures for every one project success.
Only 32% of companies employ practices that make the likelihood of project success "Probable." The remaining 68% enter every project with an "Improbable" likelihood of success, even before they begin the project
Over 40% of the IT development budget for software, staff and external professional services will be consumed by poor requirements at the average company using average analysts. This requirements premium is avoided by organizations that consistently use best practices in business requirements when completing projects.
An Idea is Worth $0 Until it Becomes a Well-executed Requirement.
We see requirements as the glue that holds the entire innovation process together - from ideas to requirements to products. So, without well-defined, well-managed and well-executed requirements, innovation simply doesn't happen. Good ideas don't materialize, R&D investments go to waste and smart people get frustrated - all things that paralyze an organization. Thus, an investment in requirements management and in this key role will yield a higher Return on Ideas - think of it as a new kind of ROI to go with the financial one.
They Save Your Company "a lot" of Time and Money.
Call it productivity. Call it efficiency. Call it failure avoidance. Whatever you want to call it, your business analysts save your company a lot of time and money. How much is a lot? It can be a difficult thing to quantify precisely, but a lot is somewhere between "oodles" and "a truck load". And we all have an idea how much that is! How ever you measure it, when requirements get done properly, projects get delivered on time and products go to market faster. And, last time we checked, those were two things that great companies and senior executives valued. A lot!
Chief Business Analyst Sounds Pretty Nice.
Meet the new Chief Business Analyst, time to make room at the executive table! Should we get new business cards printed up? We're not kidding. By championing the development of thousands of well-written requirements and collaboratively managing them throughout your innovation process, your staff of business analysts significantly impact the performance of your company every day. And, that makes them a strategic asset. Hmm, that sounds like a function worthy of a C-level executive. We think CBA sounds pretty nice too.
Last Updated on Saturday, 24 October 2009 05:07
Six Mistakes to Avoid when You Start a New Job
Written by Business Analyst
Saturday, 24 October 2009 06:29
Mistake #1: Assume you know what is expected of you
One of the biggest complaints we heard from new leaders was a lack of clarity around the role and their boss's expectations. A key reason for this is that there simply isn't enough candid conversation, before or after the move. Would you take a job at a different company without thoroughly investigating it and spending time with your new boss discussing her expectations? Put the assumptions aside and start asking questions - even if you think they are dumb. How does your boss see the role? What does he expect you to accomplish? How will that be measured? What do other people expect from you?
Mistake #2: Assume you have relationships with the right people
When people join a new company they invest a lot of energy building relationships with stakeholders. They know that these are critical to getting things done. When you move inside your company, you might assume you already know everyone. The reality is relationships are a lot more complicated than that - you take your history with you. If you have been promoted, people who used to be your superiors are now your peers. People who used to be peers are now subordinates. Not everyone is going to be happy with this arrangement, and not everyone will make it easy. A good strategy is to sit down and map out your stakeholders and realistically assess the history and strength of your relationship. You need to re-contract all of your pre-existing relationships, and you may need to build some bridges.
Mistake #3: Assume the culture is the same
Every function, every team, every level in a company has its own culture. Your job is to understand how it is different from what you are used to, and what you need to do to adjust to it. For people who are promoted, operating at a new level of team dynamics and politics often comes as a shock. The sooner you figure out nuances around group culture and norms, the faster you will be able to fit in.
Mistake #4: Forget to earn the credibility of others
When people come from the outside they spend their first 90 days working on an early win. They know it is critical to demonstrate why they were hired. What internal transfers sometimes forget is that their colleagues are waiting for them to prove themselves, too. People want to know why you got that promotion or were assigned to that high-profile project. It is not enough to rely on your history. You need to prove yourself.
Mistake #5: Take too long to figure out what you don't know
When you've just been picked for a new job it can be tough to admit what you don't know. After all, you've been around. People are expecting you to know, aren't they? The likelihood that you are going to walk in and not know everything is pretty high. Figure out what that is sooner rather than later and don't be afraid to ask the dumb questions.
Mistake #6: Ignore your development gaps
Every new job demands new things from you, things you may not have done before. You may need to delegate more, think more strategically, influence more effectively. Leaders often assume they are ready for a new job. We found that in the beginning, 75% believe they are adequately prepared and have the capabilities to be successful. By Month 10, this drops to 40%. It is more popular these days to talk about strengths, and you need to leverage them. But don't ignore your development gaps. Address them before they become derailers.
