SITTING ON A BLUE-GRAY SILK sofa in a 51st-floor
corner office at American Express Co.'s World Financial Center
headquarters, Ted Truscott looked nervously across an imposing
polished walnut desk at Kenneth Chenault, the company's powerful,
tightly coiled CEO. It was mid-July 2001, and Truscott, a
40-year-old executive at Zurich Scudder
Investments, was on the final round of interviews
for the job of global chief investment officer overseeing the
company's asset management division.
The two men exchanged pleasantries before turning to
business. At last, Chenault leaned forward in his brown leather
chair and asked the candidate if he had any questions.
"Just one," Truscott replied. "Will I have the
authority to make changes?"
"Actually," Chenault said, his voice rising, "I will
demand that you make changes."
Chenault had good reason to be demanding. AmEx's
once-vaunted money management operation was reeling, brought low by
faulty strategy and sorry investment performance. A decade before,
the...
