While the Credit Suisse boss sails from success to success internationally as he nears the end of a grueling three-year revamp of the Swiss bank, he remains unloved and unappreciated in Switzerland's business community.
After three years righting Credit Suisse, CEO Tidjane Thiam has arrived in the Olympus of finance: British finance magazine «Euromoney» named him «Banker of the Year». A ten-page chronicle of Thiam's journey since joining the Swiss bank in 2015 heaps praise on the French-Ivorian's visionary thinking, including fawning testimonials from his employees including finance chief David Mathers.
The «master strategist», as Euromoney calls him, has visibly basked in the accolades. Prone to imperious behavior and prickly to criticism, Thiam has lost grasp of the Swiss sense of proportionality (the one which dictates that even top executives appear to stay grounded). A typical example is his self-assessment that «the option to IPO part of the Swiss business may have been actually one of the best ideas I have ever had in my business career».
Swiss Doubts
Switzerland's opinion-leading «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (article in German) daily decried Thiam's aversion to criticism: «Credit Suisse boss Thiam increasingly avoids confronting questions that could raise doubts over his masterful achievements. There's room for improvement in this respect,» the paper wrote. This represents a resounding rebuke from the very business- and particularly bank-friendly publication.
The harsh tone from NZZ isn't coincidental: Thiam, presenting Credit Suisse's second-quarter results on Tuesday, reacted with unusual vigor to the question by an experienced financial journalist, highlighting a discrepancy between consensus estimates and the results of Credit Suisse, calling them «so stupid». The transcript of the conference shows that the word «stupid» was aimed at the comments made in reference to the consensus forecasts and not the question by the journalist.
Sharply Differing Views
It's not the first time that Thiam, who graduated with honors in maths and physics from an elite French university and had a brilliant career at consulting firm McKinsey as well as experience in public service in Cote d'Ivoire, has responded testily to public questioning.
Winning over «Euromoney» as well as «NZZ» should be a home run for Thiam. The two publications' sharply differing views of his tenure illustrate how Thiam remains a controversial and even divisive executive in Switzerland – despite his undisputed accomplishments at Credit Suisse, as finews.com has reported previously.
Peak Thiam?
What next for Thiam, who probably is not particularly perturbed to be unappreciated in Switzerland? He is coy to «Euromoney», to whom the bank granted lavish access to Thiam as well as a host of top executives including CFO Mathers, private bank head Iqbal Khan, and Swiss unit boss Thomas Gottstein.
Thiam notes only that after three grinding years, he wishes to stick around and enjoy the fruits of his accomplishments. He may be hoping that the «Banker of the Year» award isn't as much of a «peak» moment for his career as it has been for some other notable bankers such as Citigroup's Vikram Pandit.
