JP Morgan Chase 2015 Annual Report Download - page 24

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III. WE ACTIVELY DEVELOP AND SUPPORT OUR EMPLOYEES
If you were able to travel the world with
me, to virtually all major cities and coun-
tries, you would see firsthand your company
in action and the high quality and character
of our people. JPMorgan Chase and all its
predecessor companies have prided them-
selves on doing “only first-class business and
in a first-class way.” Much of the capability
of this company resides in the knowledge,
expertise and relationships of our people. And
while we always try to bring in fresh talent
and new perspectives, we are proud that our
senior bankers have an average tenure of 15
years. This is testament to their experience,
and it means they know who to call anywhere
around the world to bring the full resources of
JPMorgan Chase to bear for our clients.
Traveling with me, you would see our senior
leadership team’s exceptional character,
culture and capability. You also would
probably notice that 20% of this leadership
group, over 250 teammates who manage
our businesses worldwide, is ethnically
diverse, and more than 30% are women.
Even though we believe that we have excel-
lent people and a strong, positive corporate
culture, we are always examining new ways
to improve.
How are you ensuring you have the right conduct and culture?
We reinforce our culture every chance we get.
Our Business Principles are at the forefront
of everything we do, and we need to make
these principles part of every major conver-
sation at the company – from the hiring,
onboarding and training of new recruits to
town halls and management meetings to how
we reward and incentivize our people. To
get better at this, last year we met with more
than 16,000 employees in 1,400 focus groups
around the world to get their feedback on
some of our challenges and what we can do
to strengthen and improve our culture.
That said, we acknowledge that we, at times,
have fallen short of the standards we have
set for ourselves. This year, the company
pleaded guilty to a single antitrust viola-
tion as part of a settlement with the U.S.
Department of Justice related to foreign
exchange activities. The conduct underlying
the antitrust charge is principally attribut-
able to a single trader (who has since been
dismissed) and his coordination with traders
at other firms. As we said at the time, one
lesson is that the conduct of a small group of
employees, or of even a single employee, can
reflect badly on all of us and can have signifi-
cant ramifications for the entire firm. That’s
why we must be ever vigilant in our commit-
ment to fortify our controls and enhance
our historically strong culture, continuing
to underscore that doing the right thing is
the responsibility of every employee at the
company. We all have an obligation to treat
our customers and clients fairly, to raise our
hand when we see something wrong or to
speak up about something that we should
improve – rather than just complain about it
or ignore it.
We have intensified training and development.
We are committed to properly training and
developing our people to enable them to
grow and succeed throughout their careers.
Our intent is to create eective leaders who
embody our Business Principles.