Review
"Ron Shelp…does a great job of delving into the individual personalities and their motivations, leaving the reader with a front row seat to AIG’s genesis, growth, and fall from grace." (
The Investment Professional)
"All Hank Greenberg ever wanted was "an unfair advantage." That is the phrase that Ron Shelp chooses to sum up Maurice R. Greenberg, the deposed chairman of the American International Group and the subject of his "Fallen Giant: The Amazing Story of Hank Greenberg and the History of A.I.G.," and it would be hard to improve on.
Insurance, Mr. Greenberg realized early, is the game of playing only when the odds are in one’s favor. For instance, if a far-flung customer wants insurance against a kidnapping — a risk that few others will touch — chances are that you can charge a lot for the policy. As Mr. Greenberg did not fail to notice, plenty of overseas executives are kidnapped, but many more are not — and they pay premiums, too.
Throw in a few other "unfair" advantages, like lobbying, cajoling or otherwise persuading governments to do one’s bidding as well as, quite possibly, obscuring some of the truth about one’s operations, and you have the secret of a great insurance fortune.
Accusations of cooking the books more or less forced Mr. Greenberg to resign last year. Mr. Shelp, a former Greenberg lieutenant and troubleshooter at A.I.G., wrote the book ostensibly to explain his old boss’s fall from grace.
He asks some very good questions. One is why Mr. Greenberg would risk his $3 billion fortune on some "fairly modest fiddling." Another is this: What did Eliot Spitzer, New York’s attorney general and now its governor-elect, have against Mr. Greenberg, whom he all but accused of criminality on Sunday morning television? Then, after the A.I.G. board forced Mr. Greenberg to resign, Mr. Spitzer neglected to charge him after all. Well, never mind. (Mr. Spitzer did file civil charges, which Mr. Greenberg is contesting.)
Mr. Shelp leaves no doubt that A.I.G. was a master at shaping and, at times, bending the rules, but he argues that the offenses that got Mr. Greenberg canned were pretty modest, and notes that reversing the deals in question resulted in a write-down of only 3 percent of A.I.G.’s equity…
…Alas, even modest fiddling, such as the "earnings management" he was accused of, is no longer tolerated in American business. Mr. Greenberg seems not to have noticed. But even if A.I.G. hadn’t changed, the world had". (New York Times, December 17, 2006)
From the Inside Flap
Over its eighty-nine-year history, American International Group, better known as AIG, has achieved unparalleled success by adjusting to changing economic trends, regulatory rules, and political situations. While founder Cornelius Vander Starr—who led this Shanghai start-up for fifty years—built an extraordinary insurance franchise, it was his hand-picked successor, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who would turn that franchise into one of the world's most profitable and powerful financial services companies.
Now, in Fallen Giant, author Ron Shelp—who worked alongside Greenberg and within the AIG organization for more than a decade—sheds light on AIG, the company, and Hank Greenberg, the man. Through in-depth research, candid interviews, and firsthand experiences, Shelp provides a detailed look at how AIG was originally created and reveals the trouble that Greenberg and company eventually ran into when New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer turned his sights on them.
Entertaining and informative, Fallen Giant follows AIG from its humble beginnings in Shanghai to its modern-day offices in New York City—where Chinese involvement can still be found. Along the way, you'll meet a unique group of individuals—from Russia and China to the United States—who helped shape the company's culture, and discover the unpredictable events that changed the course of the company.
Filled with international intrigue and expert business acumen, Fallen Giant carefully details how founder Cornelius Vander Starr built his empire—from American Asiatic Underwriters to AIG—and why he ultimately handed it off to the dynamic, driven, and tough-minded Hank Greenberg. With Greenberg at the helm, you'll learn how this calculated risk-taker transformed AIG into a public entity, expanded its operations to new countries, and acquired huge businesses. You'll also see how Greenberg's numerous
connections with both politicians and business professionals allowed him to become a highly visible spokesman for the industry, a leader in the nonprofit and philanthropic worlds, and an important figure in foreign policy circles.
Through a unique insider's view, Fallen Giant paints a compelling portrait of how the world's largest provider of property and casualty insurance came to be and reveals how Greenberg's unrelenting drive to be the best may have led to his untimely departure from AIG.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
