Henry Kravis

When I think about culture at scale, you'll remember this, Tommy.

I watched an interview with Henry Kravis, one of the co-founders of KKR.

It was a Bloomberg interview.

That was one thing that was super important to the founders and the co-CEOs is this culture of KKR, which is massive.

I'm your host, Dr. Richard, and our guest today, in a word, is brilliant.

His name is Dr. J.A. Conger, and he is the Henry Kravis Chaired Professor of Leadership Studies at Claremont McKenna College.

Widely recognized as one of the world's foremost experts on leadership and persuasion, he has been ranked by Financial Times...

among the top 10 global management educators.

And at a company sponsored golf tournament, one of his investors pitches him on the idea of carrying out a leveraged buyout, to try and solve the stagnant stock price.

With this friend Don suggesting that Ross meet up with Henry Kravis.

Because Henry's the best.

He was the first to do a company buyout.

He practically owns a patent on the process.

And again, all these people are real.

Henry Kravis is actually one of the K's of private equity company KKR, a firm that today manages over half a trillion dollars in assets under management.

And the movie does have a few scenes trying to explain how a leveraged buyout works, including the golf tournament itself, Ross's introductory dinner with Henry Kravis where he gets pitched on the idea, and then later when Ross's wife explicitly asks him to explain leveraged buyouts.

And so I want to get straight into that.

My grok research very quickly took me to a famous cold call that you received from Henry Kravis.

I understand that was in March 1998.

And of course, even by that point, Henry Kravis was one of the most famous dealmakers in the world.

He'd executed several years prior to that, what at the time was the largest buyout ever of Nabisco for 25 billion.

Please tell us more about this call.

And therefore also quite attractive because there were not that many competitors.

And so I did the buyout business for Invescorp for, you know, eight and a half, nine years.

Jay is one of the world's leading experts on leadership, influence, and persuasion.

He's also the Henry R. Kravis Chair Professor of Leadership Studies at Claremont McKenna College.

And for more than three decades, Jay has studied what makes leaders effective and has worked with over 500 organizations as an executive educator, coach, and advisor.

His work has earned him recognition from the Financial Times as one of the world's top management educators.

Not just giving money, but more importantly, giving their time.

And I remember when I went to Columbia for my MBA in finance, Henry Kravis, who basically invented the private equity sector, he came and he gave a speech.

And he was a straight C student at Columbia, by the way.

And I sat front row center.

Ghislaine Maxwell at table one.

And other guests included Donald Trump, Henry Kravis, Ronald Lauder, Anna Wintour, and Barry Humphries.

Anna Wintour is a fucking freak.

I don't care what anybody says.