【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[解析] 23-30
F: OK. Roger, I required you to do research on the case study of Morgan Stanley, one of the most well-known investment banks. How did John Mack save this bank during the financial crisis? Let's work through the main issues together. Now, would you mind giving me a brief summary?
M:Erm, yeah, er, well, um. During the depths of the global financial meltdown in September 2008, John Mack faced the most critical moment of his tenure as CEO of Morgan Stanley. The investment bank was nearly out of cash, its stock price plunging into the single digits as investors lost all confidence in the financial sector. Mack was under enormous pressure from U. S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner—who was then head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank--and from Geithner's higher-ups, then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
F: What did they want John to do then?
M:Actually, they believed that the best way to save the bank was by merging with another player, most likely JP Morgan Chase & Co. , for a price as low as a dollar. But Mack, was pursuing a very different strategy, aimed at saving Morgan Stanley with the dual goals of preserving thousands of jobs as well as one of the best-known names on Wall Street.
F: It was an impossible job at that time. How did John fulfill his plan?
M:Well, central to that plan was an influx of cash from outside investors, but Mack's effort to negotiate such a deal on a Sunday afternoon with Japan's leading bank—Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group—kept getting interrupted by phone calls from Geithner and Paulson, begging him to call JP Morgan Chase's CEO, Jamie Dimon. Mack stayed on the phone as Mitsubishi agreed to invest up to $8.4 billion in Morgan Stanley—the largest overseas investment by a Japanese financial firm ever—and then he worked out a deal with regulators to convert the investment bank into a bank holding company.
F: Nice move. This move could offer much greater flexibility for dealing with the fastmoving crisis.
M:Yes. Little more than a year later, the new Morgan Stanley is on solid ground with a focus on its brokerage business after purchasing that unit from Salomon Smith Barney.
F: Interesting. Good. Then what did John learn from this financial crisis?
M:He said his main lesson on leadership from the 2008 financial crisis was the need to keep employees—both executives and the rank-and-file—keeping fully informed on the situation and to let them know that their concerns were the company's first priority. "We had a number of town hall meetings and I tried to say to people, what's going on, —what's rumor and not rumor, " Mack said. "If they want to sell your stock, sell—we're not keeping notes on who sells and who doesn't. Employees need to be comfortable with their situation. "
F: Morgan Stanley, like other Wall Street banks, was heavily influenced by the crisis. By September 2008, the firm had written down some $15.7 billion in bad loans and investments. In this tough situation, what was the original plan of the whole top administration?
M:The real trigger for the worldwide crisis was the collapse of rival Lehman Brothers. On Friday, September 12, 2008, Mack was asked to join other top financial executives in an emergency meeting. But when Mack got there, he and the other private banking leaders balked at what the Treasury Department was asking them to do: create a "bad bank" to park the so-called toxic assets of Lehman Broth- ers.
F: Did it work out?
M:Unfortunately, Lehman's bankruptcy, announced that Sunday night, September in financial firms, including Morgan Stanley. On the first day of trading after Lehman collapse, Morgan Stanley stock lost roughly 30% of its value.
F: At the depth of the crisis, what did John Mack do to build other employees' confidence?
M:Mack said that he tried to convey an aura of confidence and break up the considerable tension with humor. "All I know is, the one thing I could not do is let my team see how concerned I was. " Mack kept a blood-pressure device on his desk that he and his executives used for a laugh at critical times, although he add ed that one executive was actually sent to the hospital for stress because his level was so high. According to Mack, the pep talk and jokes were critical to seeing his firm through the crisis.
F: What did he think of his dispute with other administrators?
M:His emphasis on employees was at the core of his mounting dispute with Paulson, Geithner and Bernanke, he added. "I disagreed with them—but I'm not upset with them. Their job is to have financial stability, while my job is to protect the firm and keep it going. It wasn't nefarious, it wasn't mean—it was just practical. They did a superb job. "
F: Nice job, Roger, OK, Let's move on to...