A legendary deal-maker was asked about the one mistake he made again and again, and his answer was brutal (KKR)

pulse

February 22, 2017 8:42 PM

Henry Kravis is a Wall Street legend. But that doesn't mean he hasn't made mistakes.

Henry Kravis is a Wall Street legend.

The firm he founded with his cousin George Roberts in 1976, KKR, now manages $130 billion. It has just under 1,000 investors, many of which are state and municipal pension funds, and its portfolio of companies stands at more than 100.

The firm has done several huge deals, including the acquisition of RJR Nabisco in the firm's early years and more recent deals for the likes of Alliance Boots, First Data, and Clear Channel.

Kravis is estimated to have a personal net worth of close to $5 billion, according to Forbes.

However, that doesn't mean that he hasn't made mistakes. In an interview with Kip McDaniel at Institutional Investor, Kravis was asked to identify a mistake he repeated during his 40 years at KKR. His answer was pretty brutal, but it gets to a classic Wall Street concept: knowing when to cut your losses.

Here's what Kravis had to say:

"We might have been too slow in changing out some CEOs of companies we had, keep thinking that he or she will get a lot better. I can pretty well tell you that what you see up front is pretty much what you'll see in the end. You can help around the edges, but people don't change that much.

"Waiting is a lost opportunity, and we used to wait. And we didn't do it just once — we did it a number of times because we kept thinking, 'OK it's not the right time. We don't have the right person.'

"I think today we move much faster than we ever did."

Watch the full interview »

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