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Dimon and the dangers of Napoleonic hubris

JP Morgan is unlikely to meet its Waterloo. But shareholders should not rest on the chief executive’s imperial laurels

Napoleon Bonaparte probably wouldn’t have had a lot of time for corporate governance, shareholder meetings or annual appraisals. As he once said, a prince accused by his subjects does not owe them any apologies.

But, nearly 200 years after the French military and political leader met his Waterloo, Napoleon's precipitous fall from grace can be viewed as not only a military or strategic failure, but also one of governance. This thesis suggests that things started going wrong for Napoleon many years before it became clear, with his humiliating retreat from Russia in 1812 and ultimate defeat in 1815, that the game was up.

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