WILEY The House of Dimon: How JPMorgan′s Jamie Dimon Rose to the Top of the Financial World

Interested in finding how a person rises to this level of management and prospers in our financial world, I was glad that I decided to read Ms. Crisafulli's book. She brought me into his world and I was able to understand the reason behind him being a successful manager in finance. I found the book to be insightful and encouraging for managers of all levels, all paths. I wasn't looking for deep intrigue, for a financial manager's 'how-to' book ... this book allowed me to understand the reasons behind his ability to manage and uplift others. He's a man of great consequence and I recommend this book for anyone that is searching for a management mentor.

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.

Based on professional experience and practically.

Provides great insight into a stalwart, easy to read, quite entertaining actually, provides a good background of the the early days to the present time.

I enjoyed this book but I rated it a four. I thought the author rambled a bit towards the end and lost my attention. They kept saying basically the same things over and over. There are a few key concepts that Jamie has used to be successful in his career and his leadership at some of the top financial institutions in America. Jamie is a top notch leader and I would recommend that you read this book, if you want to be a better leader or a top executive.