Relationship Banking Over Transaction Focus

"First, at its core banking is not simply about profit, but about personal relationships. And second, the key aspect of any successful merger or acquisition lies in the ability of the new company to provide a beneficial service to its customers. The company has to deliver, or it must try harder until it does."

"The financial services industry is at a turning point. If it is going to help companies and investors during a decade when doubts continue to undermine the marketplace, if it is going to help businesses to provide jobs and services—then, I believe, it needs to return to the values and practices that were first instilled in me by André Meyer. Investment banking is not a business; it is a personal service where bankers work hand in hand with their clients. And it is a service that must not simply be about making bigger and bigger deals that reap rewards for only a small group of executives. It should aim to create new partnerships that result in stronger, more innovative companies able to provide new jobs and better services. These are the fundamental beliefs that guided me in the past. And they will once again guide me in the future."

"He did this, in part, through a network of carefully cultivated connections in business and government. His was an international circle that included President Lyndon Johnson of the United States; Jean Monnet, the father of the European Common Market; Gianni Agnelli, chairman of Fiat; Eugene Black, president of the World Bank; David Rockefeller, chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank; General Lucius Clay, the mastermind of the Berlin airlift; David Sarnoff, the head of RCA; and Bill Paley, president of CBS."

"standing in Mr.—throughout our decades together I would always address him as either “Mr.” or “monsieur”—Meyer’s office, meeting him for the first time, I immediately understood the rebuke in his question. After two months at the firm, I had received a raise to $50 a week. Yet I had not thought to write him a letter of thanks. This was not how “family” members were expected to behave."