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Host: Is international maybe a bigger opportunity for the company than the U.S. is?
Sallie Krawcheck: Absolutely is. Absolutely it is.
Host: What kind of opportunity is China for you?
Sallie Krawcheck: China I think it is, is what we would call a longer term opportunity. Um. I think there have been er, many companies that have gone in and expected to earn a lot of money. Oh, you, you, you do the very trite math, right? You take out your calculator, you know, these many billion (1.3 billion) people and the numbers went off the side of the calculator. Because there are so many and all they have to do is, you know, make one deposit or take out one loan and my goodness, me. It's gonna be terrific. One has to be very patient in dealing with China. It is, to state the obvious, it is clearly a different culture, than we have here, different business environment. And to view the American bill, we have to get in, we have to make money, we need a positive MPV immediately, right, is doomed to failure.
Host: You were not only CFO, you're also head of strategy.
Sallie Krawcheck: Sure.
Host: Is there any kind of tension between those roles? Can you balance them?
Sallie Krawcheck: I view my role, I have to be the conscience of Citigroup, the right numbers, not that good-looking, the right numbers. Um, I view my role, also, and Chuck's role as well as chief capital allocators, and as communicator. And those three things really have to work together.
An Unidentified Man: What would you say about the ability to innovate and innovativeness? Is that an important part of your job as well?
Sallie Krawcheck: We recently launched an Internet bank offering. Right, blew our doors off. I mean just blew the doors off. Um, and we believe we, we have, we'll change it six times but you know the right combination of pricing and brand and all that stuff. But it has to be innovated in terms of...Ok, let's, let's ...where should that capital be? Right, what can we see as we think about strategy for Citigroup. What can we try to see five and ten years down the road, or two months down the road. Isn't it as it is today? Ok, how can we envision. Um, you know a world that will be different. The next iteration of Citigroup will be more global than it is today. It'll build on our strength. It'll take advantage of what's to come.
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