cover image Jenrette the Contrarian Manager

Jenrette the Contrarian Manager

Richard H. Jenrette. McGraw-Hill Companies, $20 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-07-032935-5

In a rambling, good-humored style, retired financial executive Jenrette reveals his thoughts on his 40-year Wall Street career, which was marked by ""contrarian investing,"" a term for those ""who believe the conventional wisdom is always wrong... in the marketplace."" Jenrette was cofounder with two fellow Harvard Business School graduates of the research-oriented financial house Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and later, as CEO, he rescued the failing insurance giant Equitable. Viewed as contrarian at the time (but as it turned out, correct), the author cites ""getting rid of the straightjacket"" of the New York Stock Exchange ban on members' sale of stock in their own firms. He hired young MBAs, backed small, well-managed companies and preached that problems create opportunities. An astrology buff (he's an Aries) and restorer of historic homes, Jenrette offers, along with financial wisdom, trenchant and amusing personal observations. But lest everyone jump at the chance to become contrarian, he advises that if you are ""very traditional, very conventional, very methodical, there's no point in trying to make yourself over into a maverick."" (July)