Tearing Down the Walls: How Sandy Weill Fought His Way to the Top of the Financial World. . .and Then Nearly Lost It All

Customer Reviews

What makes this book interesting are the character flaws of Sandy Weill. While he has strengths in cost cutting efficiency, he has many management flaws. Temper management, delegation of authority, public speaking are but a few of the flaws detailed in this book. Of particular interest is his relationship with Jamie Dimon, his long-time younger protégé, who is eventually let go and now runs Bank One.

There is one complaint I have with this book. At the takeover of Commercial Credit, there are significant discussions of the changes in management philosophy that are quite interesting. But after significant work and allusion of improvement, no report of financial performance was provided to demonstrate mathematically how positive the improvement was. Obviously, it was significant given the mergers that took place after the turnaround of Commercial Credit.

I must compliment the author on a thorough research job. It was clear from the dialog that this book would have been impossible without interviews with many different people including Sandy Weill. I did not find this book tipped to Weill's favor as a "fluff" piece but rather I thought the author balanced the good with the bad.

In summary, if you like business summaries dealing with finance you will like this book.

Sandy Weill has achieved the most incredible amount throughout his lifetime. No challenge was incomprehensible. From Corned Beef With Lettuce to Citicorp, the book details how the man today who shapes Wall Street overcame every imaginable obstacle.

High Street brands and personalities we are all familiar with come together in this fabulously orchestrated jigsaw which today has come together to form one of the most recognisable consumer financial firms today - Citibank.

A tremendous read.

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