关于约翰·桑顿（英）
Chapter I
About John LThorntonJohn Thornton was born in New York of the United
States. When he was fourteen, he enrolled in Hotchkiss, an allboy boarding
school, whose students mainly came from wealthy families. Hotchkiss was
also a school that pays great attention to the cultivation of its students
character. During this period when John Thornton was in Hotchkiss, he
not only made remarkable achievement in academic area, but had very good
performance in sports － he held a concurrent position as the captain of
both school basketball team and tennis team. Therefore, since the day John
Thornton entered into the school gate of Hotchkiss, he displayed certain
quality that is doomed to distinguish him from his ancestors. Brought up
in such a family that most of its family members were lawyers, Thornton
should have become an excellent barrister as well.
When John Thornton was still in his youth, he spent eight years time
to get the bachelor degree of history, master degree of law and master degree
of administration study in Harvard University of the United States, Oxford
University of Great Britain and Yale University of the United States respectively.
Not following his familys tradition to be a lawyer, he mainly focused
his attention on investment and financial field when he was hunting a job
at the age of 26. In 1980, John Thornton got a position in Goldman Sachs
Corporation that had a history of more than 100 years. Like any other newcomers,
he experienced and gradually got rid of all the confusions and discomforts
as he first entered into society and became a partner of the company at
the age of 34. From a ordinary employee in the merging and acquisition department
at the headquarter located in New York to the second most important figure
in Goldman Sachs Corporation, Thornton has stayed in the company for 22
years and closely affiliated his personal career with Goldman Sachs.
As the expert on merging and acquisition affairs, Thornton revived the
sluggish London market in the 1980s by utilizing some ingenious strategies.
Hereafter, he established his reputation and made a great stride toward
being a world famous investment banker.
From Operating Independently to Win the First Battle to ‘Cross the
River by Groping for the Stone’
Thorntons bestknown contribution to Goldman Sachs Corporation is
that he widened the company s international business. As a matter of fact,
Goldman Sachs Corporation to a great extent was still an internal firm nearly
without international business at the time when Thornton joined it. But
under the leadership and the guidelines of Thornton, the original International
Business Sector with only fifty employees at first developed into a major
department with more than six thousand employees.
In less than 10 months after he joined the company, he told his superior
that he wanted to take charge of a project by himself. Maybe, taking into
consideration of his background as a newcomer, his superior only gave him
a project with little hope for success. The client of this project is world
famous gum product manufacturer who hope to sell out the company at a reasonable
price. But in the past two years before they came to contact Goldman Sachs
Corporation, Thornton s client had already negotiated with more than two
hundred different firms without success. That s why Thorntons superior
thought that the project did not have much chance for success.
Having investigated the project, John Thornton found that the 200
odd companies his client had contacted were all from the United States.
Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind: why not try the companies outside
America. Thus, he chose six foreign companies that he thought might have
the intention to purchase his clients company. Thomas Tilling Corporation
was one of them. And the board chairman of this company happened to have
the plan to open up American market. He showed great interest in John Thornton
s advice and finally bought his clients company.
The success of the project enlightened John Thornton. Since then he
diverted his attention to British economy as well as the development trend
of the whole European economy. So he put forward an application for an opportunity
to go to London for the purpose of tapping European market. “When I told
my colleagues that I was going to London, they all said I was crazy ”,
recalled John Thornton. He continued, “Actually even I myself was not sure
whether European economy had the evidence of revival, or in what speed Europeans
would take to reform their economic system, or whether American investment
bank would like to go to Britain to set up branch organizations. Moreover,
there were not any experiences or lessons I took as a reference in open
up British market. All I could do was to cross the river by groping for
the stone.”
‘American Model’ Remold London to a Modern City
At the end of 1982, John Thornton moved to London with the plan to provide
investmentcounseling service to European firms and help them to open up
American market.
‘Indeed, nothing is easy at very first ’, John Thornton said so when
he looked back on the time the situation as he just arrived at London. He
recollected that, ‘at that time, I just worked in the investment bank for
less than 3 years. And I still had not had my 29th birthday. You know, it
is not easy to be a successful investment consultant at that age’. In order
to attract the attention of British enterprises, John Thornton made out
two strategies for himself. First, try everything to make himself the investment
consultant of the wellknown enterprises and entrepreneurs in Britain,
which enable him to set up his reputation as a successful investment consultant.
Second, find those British enterprises whose market value was underestimated
by stock market, because it was quite possible that these companies would
end up with hostile takeover. Very soon, people could always found this
American at the lunch table of the British security bankers. He always came
without anyones invitation and always came straight to talk about cooperation
and business.
Sometimes, you have no choice but believe an old saying: without coincidence
there would be no stories.
The very first day when John Thornton just arrived at London, he just
got the ‘gift’ endowed by God. At that time, he just picked up and began
to skip that days newspaper at hand. Suddenly a news title jumped into
his eyes － The Hostile Takeover to Thomas Tilling Corporation. This article
mentioned that the purchasing price was about ￡ 630 million, over four
times higher than the highest purchasing price (￡ 150 million) in British
history. In terms of this issue, many people held that this acquisition
had no chance for success for Thomas Tilling at that time was still an industry
tycoon. But John Thornton had different idea. No sooner he saw the report
than he called the board chairman of Thomas Tilling Corporation and said,
‘Maybe I can help you’. Since they had cooperated with each other before,
the board chairman invited him to have a face toface talk with him.
So he came to Thomas Tilling Corporation and analyzed at length for him
the situation they were in and emphasized that this hostile takeover was
not a small matter. He told the chairman that the hostile takeover had wide
chance of success if they did not pay great attention to it.
In the following three days, the security bank employed by Thomas Tilling
still did not have any reaction to this issue, just like nothing happened
during those days. As a result, Thomas Tilling ceased the contract with
that bank and hired Goldman Sachs as the investment consultant.
This hostile takeover did not succeed at last. And due to the big influence
of Thomas Tilling, Goldman Sachs also stood out conspicuously in business
sphere in Britain. John Thornton summarized, I learned from this experience
that British investment bank actually did not had many experiences compared
with that of the United States. Furthermore, the financial system reform
that had begun in Britain offered Goldman Sachs more opportunity and strengthened
my confidence to bring American experience to Britain. On the other hand,
it also changed our idea on the means of helping European enterprises to
open up American market. On the basis of the original blueprint, we need
to help them to improve their investment and ameliorate their management
in the domestic market. Since then, he started his plan to train experts
on hostile takeover prevention.
It is true that the market consciousness was not very strong in Britain
in the early 1980s. The general feeling was that they are quite ‘gentleman
’ because they just waited their customers to visit them as soon as they
sign the contract with them. John Thorntons ‘American model’ brought
about turmoil in the sphere of British security bank. In 1986, there were
altogether five hostile takeovers in Britain, each of which was a deal with
a purchasing price beyond ￡ 1 billion. And Goldman Sachs took part in four
of these five hostile takeovers, three of which successfully defeated the
hostile takeover. As to the rest one, the actual purchasing price was much
higher than the original one. So to some extent, it could also be counted
as a successful one.
As early as 1983, Thornton had already started his attempt to establish
investment bank and develop franchising business in Europe. In 1985, he
moved to settle down in London. Therefore, it could be said that it was
almost on the basis of nothing that Thornton established his gigantic merging
and acquisition business in Europe and successful opened up a new battlefield
for Goldman Sachs. It is by no means an easy project, because the business
culture in Europe in the 1980s was still reputed for its conservativeness
and selfcomplacence. Even for American, they still had to overcome many
handicaps in culture and custom differences.
In 2002 when Thornton, the incumbent Chief Executive Officer of Goldman
Sachs and the United Chief Operative Officer left London that he had lived
for 15 years and moved back to New York, the Financial Times in Britain
even extolled him as a man who ‘turn London into a modern city’. The
a little bit overstated words in fact meant that Thornton undermined the
inactive and unprogressive operational mode of the local commercial bank.
Thorntons success also partly benefited from the privatization process
in Great Britain and Germany that began in the 1980s, which provide great
opportunities for such investment bank as Goldman Sachs Corporation. The
project that Goldman Sachs boasts about in Britain and Germany is BPs
and German Telecoms listing in stock market respectively. These two super
project founded Goldman Sachs reputation and leading position in Europe.
Besides, the incumbent CEO of BP is an intimate friend of Thornton.
Diverting Attention to Asia and Set up Subsidiary in China
Subsequently, Thornton diverted his attention to Asia although he still
paid close attention to Europe and played an important role in the decision
making of Goldman Sachs European subsidiaries. At the end of 1996,
he was appointed as the Chairman of the AsiaPacific region and stayed
on that position for nearly three years. The relationship between Thornton
and Asian market can be traced back to 1993 when he was appointed by Li
Zekai as consultative advisor in charge of the selling of Star TV. This
enabled him to know Asian market and finally promote him to be one of the
major policymakers on Goldman Sachs Corporation s Asian strategy.
The performance of Goldman Sachs in Asia is recognized by its Asian
counterpart as solid and stable. In China, Goldman Sachs has been invited
by many large scale state owned enterprises, such as China Telecom (HK
941, now renamed China Mobile), Petrochina, Bank of China (Hong Kong), to
restructure the company and assist them to list in overseas stock market.
Among them, the project of China Telecom one was guided by Thornton himself
in 1997.
As the international business of Goldman Sachs developed, Thornton also
came closer and closer to the peak position in the company. On March 1999,
Thornton became the President of Goldman Sachs. On May of the same year,
he was appointed as the United Chief Operative Officer. Just like that,
Thornton, along with John Thain, another United Chief Operative Officer
of Goldman Sachs became the second most important figure in the company
who seconded to none but Henry Boson the CEO of Goldman Sachs.
‘Thornton is a figure with the sharpest international consciousness
in investment bank area ’, commented Fang Fenglei, the Executive President
of East Asia Industrial Commercial, who had worked with Thornton for many
times. While in the eyes of his colleagues, Thornton is a charismatic leader.
‘Thornton is very smart person. He has such an amazing ability that he
could reach the core of the problem in a very short time and bring forward
the resolution scheme in a very concise way ’, Zhang Lihong, the Vice Board
Chairman of German Bank in Asia Pacific Region, and former Chief Representative
of Goldman Sachs in Beijing Agency. She added,‘I think the position that
suit him best is the position of American President.’
Saving Vodafone
Many people maintained that one of the reasons why John Thornton could
achieve such a big success in Britain was that he spared no efforts to establish
personal relations with wellknown leaders. One of the best examples of
this happened in 1988 when John Thornton noticed some special points in
a British electronic company called Racal Group.
On the surface, there were nothing special in the Annual Financial Form
on the Balance of Revenue and Expenditure. What attracted him was the mobile
phone subsidiary in the Balance Form. This was a smallscale company whose
asset only consists of twenty percent of the total assets of the Group.
John Thornton recalled, ‘At that time, some local companies in America
were doing mobile phone business as well. And those companies were all suffering
losses. However, the market value of several listed companies was overestimated
because people at that time still believed that the mobile phone business
was doomed to have a bright future. To my surprise, I found that the mobile
phone subsidiary affiliated to Racal was making profits. So I concluded
that the stock value was in fact underestimated by market, and that it was
very possible it would encounter hostile takeover ’.
He immediately called the Board Chairman of Racal Group (actually he
did not know him at that time). It was his secretary that picked up the
phone and helped him record his message. In that afternoon, the Board Chairman
called back him. John Thornton told him: We d better talk this matter
face to face, but by the phone because of its importance and sensibility.
So they arranged to meet in a hotel where John Thornton told the Board Chairman
his analysis and offered him a solution. That is to take out of twenty percent
of the Groups stock to let them fluctuate separately as a way to show
the market value of the mobile phone subsidiary. Then, John Thornton provided
the formal report to Racal at their request. The next day, Racal Group implemented
the strategy under the advice of John Thornton.
Today, there does not exist such a company as Racal Group. But that
mobile phone subsidiary evolves into Vodafone, a business tycoon in Britain.
And Goldman Sachs also develops into a leading magnate in investment bank
sphere.
After doing so many years business activities in Europe, John Thornton
found some similarities between Asia and Europe. He realized that Asia,
especially China had great potential for further development. In 1994, he
asked the Board Chairman of Goldman Sachs whether he could move to Shanghai
or not. But he rebuffed Thorntons request because in his opinion Thornton
could have a better career than in Asia. But Thornton did not lower his
interest and attention to Asia. During this time, he acted as a consultant
to assist Li Zekai in selling Star TV to Murdoch, the global media tycoon.
In fact, Murdoch did not have much interest in purchasing Star TV. And
the experts involved also considered that there was little chance for success
because Star TV at that time was still suffering losses. When John Thornton
met Murdoch in Los Angeles and London, he seldom touched upon the details
on the operation of Star TV. On the contrary, he talked a lot on the economic
development and the market potential of China. At last, Murdoch agreed to
purchase Star TV at the price of $ 1 billion. John Thornton and Murdoch
becomes very good friend since then. Later Murdochs BskyB s listing
in Britain was completed by John Thornton as well.
Mr. Thornton arrived at China for the first time in 1993 and worked
there for one years time. During this period, he developed great interest
in China. And five years before when he was still the Chairman of Goldman
Sachs in Asia Pacific region, now 49 years old John Thornton had
already established close communications with many sectors and enterprises
in China.
In 2003 when he was the front runner in taking over Henry Boson to
be the CEO of Goldman Sachs, he suddenly declared he would resign and accept
the appointment of Tsinghua University as a guest professor there, which
meant that he had to journey to and fro from Beijing and his home in New
York.
应天故事汇(gsh.yzqz.cn)
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