What JPMorgan can learn from Morgan Stanley and Manchester United

SIR Alex Ferguson’s 26 years managing English football club Manchester United won him worldwide fame for success and leadership. He even became a Harvard Business School case study; when Ferguson visited the classroom, it was standing-room only. Unfortunately, when he quit in 2013, he remained as a director – a distracting influence, hampering his successors in the eyes of critics. A decade later, the club hasn’t got close to matching his trophy haul.

There’s a lesson here for long-term leaders: When the time comes, let go. James Gorman at Morgan Stanley has definitely learned it; Jamie Dimon and the board of JPMorgan Chase should reflect on it over the next couple of years.

Gorman will quit his executive chairman role at the end of this year, he said last week, having handed the chief executive officer job to Ted Pick in January. Moving on is the right thing to do to ensure that everyone at the bank knows who’s in charge. Gorman said as much when Pick’s promotion was announced: “Frankly, I shouldn’t stay too long because it’s Ted’s job to run the firm now,” he told my colleague Sonali Basak on Bloomberg Television.