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June 14, 2006

Morgan's Jamie Dimon: He's a Leader, Not a Rock Star

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was in Lexington, Kentucky recently, and gave an interview to the Lexington Herald-Leader during his visit.

"This is not a rock star business and I am not a rock star," he told the reporter. In an seemingly unrelated question and answer, he went on to prove, without necessarily meaning to, that he isn't a "rock star":

Q: I read that as part of your cost-cutting, you discontinued the office gyms at some Chase locations. Why would a guy who likes to exercise do that?

A: There were 16 gyms accessible to -- I forget the numbers now -- 15 percent of the people? So here you have this perk that's pretty expensive and that's accessible to 15 percent of the people and only used by 3 percent of the people. The perk itself cost, if you did it per person, like $5,000 per person.

So here you have this perk that was benefiting very few people. No one liked canceling it, but when I started telling them only 3 percent were using it, they realized it was unfair. Worse than that, in most of those locations, there was a gym across the street where you could join for $600. So what kind of thing is that for a company to do?

In the old days, there weren't gyms everywhere. There are gyms everywhere now. I'm going to tell you that the 3 percent who used it, a lot of them had home gyms. They just liked the convenience of exercising, if they felt like it, in the office at lunchtime.

We've got to grow up. That's not what we are in business for. [emphasis mine]

Rock stars--and many CEOs--need gyms and other perks. Jamie Dimon isn't a rock star. Jamie Dimon is a leader.

That's why the future of JP MorganChase seems very bright.

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