This easy-to-read history of Macquarie Bank is a must-read for every MBA and commerce student. It is a recommended-read for all investors. For anyone interested in how the world functions, it is an eye-opening read. Funds management, global markets, commodities trading, international exchanges, credit markets, infrastructure financing, green markets, energy trading and more. You don’t actually have to understand the intricacies of the Macquarie deals to grasp how the bank got from a start-up to being regarded as the most successful bank in Australia. But wait, there’s more! With 79% of its income generated overseas, Macquarie is a world bank. How did it get there?
The first photo is of the 1971 all male-board of the Hill Samuel Australia from which Macquarie emerged. The last photo is of CEO Ms Shemara Wikramanayake at the COP27 Summit in 2022. That’s a hint of how it got to the top of the banking world – moving with the times, letting the smartest people rise to the top, encouraging the creative people to dream up ideas and, most crucially, thoroughly assessing the risk of each project. To wit, there’s an interesting explanation of why Macquarie has never ventured into the China market.
Even if you are not interested in banking, trading or making money, this is nonetheless a fascinating account of how the world functions. How do highways get built? How did the world survive the GFC? How does the regulatory regime protect the markets? How does the transition from fossils to renewables happen? How does a gigantic container port in New Jersey end up being partly owned by a superannuated retiree in an Australian suburb? THE MILLIONAIRE’S FACTORY will give you some insight of how the world is completely tied together.
Don’t read this book if you think it’s going to show you how to become a millionaire yourself. The clear message is that success is achieved by empowering teams of people with diverse skills under spirited leadership.
The authors are well-qualified to write this inside story of Australia’s very own global banking giant. Joyce Moullakis has a twenty year career as a senior finance journalist. Chris Wright is a senior finance journalist based in Singapore and author of ‘Rum & Coal’ and ‘No More Worlds to Conquer’.
THE MILLIONAIRE’S FACTORY by Joyce Moullakis and Chris Wright
Published by Allen & Unwin, 2023
ISBN: 978 1 76106 7150
kindle: $16
paperback $29
Review by Carol Dance. Photo of Joyce Moullakis signing books by Ben Apfelbaum