{"id":855401,"date":"2025-06-13T22:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T03:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/13\/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimons-tough-love-for-building-better-businesses\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T22:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T03:13:09","slug":"jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimons-tough-love-for-building-better-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/13\/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimons-tough-love-for-building-better-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon\u2019s tough love for building better businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I always like to read customer complaints. I read them, and when I know the policy behind the complaint, I call up the people in charge and say, \u2018I agree with the customer.\u2019 Sure, we \u2018shoulda, coulda, woulda.\u2019 But I don\u2019t give a damn whether we\u2019re technically responsible or not. You\u2019ve got to do the right thing<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

In his latest\u00a0annual letter to shareholders<\/a>, <\/strong>JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon offers a steady, clear-eyed meditation on what it takes to run, and protect, a dynamic business. <\/strong><\/p>\n

His views are rooted in lived experience, and while some lessons might sound basic, they are all the more important for being so often forgotten.<\/p>\n

Bureaucracy is a weed and you have to keep pulling<\/h2>\n

\u201cYou must kill bureaucracy all the time and relentlessly.\u201d Dimon opens with what he calls one of the biggest threats to any organization: bureaucracy. Its forms are subtle, unnecessary meetings, bloated processes, communication breakdowns, but its impact is deep. He doesn\u2019t just name the problem, he lives the solution, questioning norms, cutting unnecessary overhead, and demanding agility at every level. <\/p>\n

He recalls a visit to Home Depot\u2019s headquarters, where a simple sign captures the right mindset: \u201cStore Support Center.\u201d The implication is clear, leadership exists to support the people closest to the customer. \u201cAll of us, particularly corporate staff, [must remember] that we are here because we have a customer, a branch or an investment banker in front of a client.\u201d That mindset translates into practical behaviors, using \u201cwar rooms,\u201d reviewing customer complaints personally, and remaining attentive to feedback that might otherwise be ignored or buried.<\/p>\n

Listen first, defend never<\/h2>\n

Dimon\u2019s leadership is defined by active listening and decisive correction, not defense. \u201cI always like to read customer complaints. I read them, and when I know the policy behind the complaint, I call up the people in charge and say, \u2018I agree with the customer.\u2019 Sure, we \u2018shoulda, coulda, woulda.\u2019 But I don\u2019t give a damn whether we\u2019re technically responsible or not. You\u2019ve got to do the right thing, you\u2019ve got to change your mindset.\u201d <\/p>\n

Culture is what you do, not what you say<\/h2>\n

\u201cWhat is culture anyway? I struggle with this one a little bit because I think it\u2019s a lot of the things I\u2019m speaking about here. A great culture is created by what you do and not by what you say.\u201d <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a quiet, durable truth running through Dimon\u2019s letter, culture isn\u2019t slogans. It\u2019s about small, consistent decisions. It\u2019s about treating people with respect and setting expectations that integrity matters more than hierarchy. \u201cWe work hard to foster an environment that enables [employees] to thrive as curious, honest, hard-working and empathetic individuals who care not only about each other but about our customers as well, to be people who want to do the right thing, and it\u2019s very important we get this right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accountability\u00a0must be owned, not outsourced<\/h2>\n

Years ago, JPMorgan had 500 management coaches on the books. Dimon questioned the number. \u201cI said, \u2018Five hundred coaches? Really?\u2019\u201d His leadership team wasn\u2019t thrilled by his scrutiny. \u201cOf course I said that I wasn\u2019t [going to micromanage], and that it was their decision, but the issue really bothered me.\u201dHe changed his mind over the weekend and returned with a firm stance. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want all coaches out by the end of the week.\u201d This wasn\u2019t about saving money. It was about restoring leadership. \u201cI did it because it\u2019s a leader\u2019s job to coach, and we basically had outsourced management!\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t\u00a0let meetings replace action<\/h2>\n

Dimon doesn\u2019t romanticize collaboration for its own sake. He wants meetings with purpose and follow-through. \u201cKill meetings. But when they do happen, they have to start on time and end on time, and someone\u2019s got to lead them.\u201d <\/p>\n

The worst version of bureaucracy, in his view, is the \u201cmeeting after the meeting,\u201d where people say what they didn\u2019t want to say when it mattered. \u201cThat\u2019s not acceptable. Don\u2019t bother. I\u2019m not their messenger.\u201d Transparency isn\u2019t negotiable.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0anatomy of a mistake<\/h2>\n

Dimon doesn\u2019t hide his failures. He names them clearly, reflects honestly, and urges leaders to do the same. \u201cI also recognize that I don\u2019t always get everything right and that I have made plenty of mistakes myself, and that\u2019s why I want to candidly share some of them, as lessons.\u201d <\/p>\n

He underestimated cloud technology, delayed making hard personnel decisions, and missed early signs of risk. <\/p>\n

One of the most human moments in the letter comes from an early lesson at Bank One, where he learned something basic, and crucial, about customer service. \u201cI was in a local branch, and I realized that the branch across the street\u2019s hours were 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and our hours were 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.\u201d No one had raised the issue. <\/p>\n

No one saw it as urgent. But it was. He checked across all 1,800 branches and found they were open two hours fewer than their competitors. \u201cI apologize. I thought I was a pretty good CEO, but I messed up, I made a mistake. I should have recognized this much sooner.\u201d He acted. He changed the hours, even though the decision was unpopular. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to change it. We\u2019re here for customers. Obviously, I care about morale, but morale sucks because we suck. Morale will get better when we\u2019re better as a company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the problem isn\u2019t internal. \u201cThere used to be a wealthy guy who would come into a branch yelling and screaming. He was verbally abusive to our staff multiple times. I finally heard about it and called him and said, \u2018I want you to take all your business out of the bank. And by the way, you\u2019re not going to treat our people that way.\u2019\u201d No amount of business is worth normalizing disrespect. \u201cIf we have a client who is disrespectful to our people and the way we operate, we will fire them. And life will go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep up to date with our stories on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Elroy Grumbles
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I always like to read customer complaints. I read them, and when I know the policy behind the complaint, I call up the people in charge and say, \u2018I agree with the customer.\u2019 Sure, we \u2018shoulda, coulda, woulda.\u2019 But I don\u2019t give a damn whether we\u2019re technically responsible or not. You\u2019ve got to do the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":855402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289,110],"tags":[11784,5899],"class_list":{"0":"post-855401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jamie","8":"category-jpmorgan","9":"tag-jamie","10":"tag-jpmorgan"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}