Henry Kravis Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“I always like to refer managers in corporate America as the renters of the corporate assets, not the owners.”

“It's not just buying the company. Sure, we picked the right companies, and we picked the right management and, most importantly, we've given them the right incentive to perform.”

“I've been in a hurry all my life. I've been in a hurry to succeed, and in a hurry to prove myself.”

“But once you buy a company, you are married. You are married to that company.”

“I thought at the time that I wanted to go into institutional sales, selling stocks and bonds to institutions. In those days, which was the 1960s, the institutional salesman was making about $100,000 a year. I thought that was just an enormous amount of money.”

“One, I love the creativity. I love the ability to create a capital structure that is appropriate for a company, no matter what field it happens to be in.”

“I have, in my partner George Roberts, a person who is the most wonderful man in the world to me. He's like a brother to me. Creating with him, being side by side with him, in whatever we try to do, is a real pleasure to me.”

“I was an economics major in college, and every summer after school, I would drive my car from California, from Claremont men's college at the time, to New York. And I worked on Wall Street.”

“In the '70s and '80s, what private equity did is it changed corporate America. It started holding companies accountable, and for the first time managers started thinking like owners.”

“So I picked a field where I had a little exposure. Where I thought I could have an enormous challenge, and have a chance to really do some good, to be a pioneer in an area, and not just be like everyone else.”