Henry Kravis

Strategic Concepts & Mechanics

Signature MoveSavén: Educate the Market Before You Can Sell To It Operating PrincipleClear-Cut Forestry vs Regrowth Capitalism Signature MoveJonsson: Wallenberg Network as Entry Ticket Signature MoveMix: Shotgun Weddings Then Velvet-Rope Fundraising Strategic PatternDeregulation as Deal-Flow Gold Rush Capital StrategySecondaries: Passing Companies Between PE Funds Cornerstone MoveDouble Profitability or Don't Enter Cornerstone MoveHunt Corporate Orphans After Deregulation Competitive AdvantageCanadian Pension Model: Kill the Middleman Identity & CultureSwedish Hero Immunity for Visible Founders Signature MoveKarlsson: Ratos as the Anti-Fund — Hold Seventeen Years If Needed Risk DoctrineShort-Termism Trap: Five-Year Horizon vs Ten-Year Payoff Signature MoveDahlström: Low Leverage, Family Businesses, Patient Capital Cornerstone MoveDebt as the Engine, Company Pays Its Own Ransom Signature MoveAhlström: Copenhagen Office to Dodge Swedish Capital Controls Cornerstone MoveFee Airbag: Get Paid Win or Lose Cornerstone MoveEquity Stakes for Distribution Leverage Competitive AdvantageCableLabs Royalty-Free Standards Play Cornerstone MoveStock Architecture to Lock Control Competitive AdvantageBlackout as Franchise Leverage Capital StrategyTax-Sheltered Growing Annuity Capital StrategyInsurance Company Capital Over Banks Signature MoveNever Bet the Whole Farm Strategic PatternWarrants as Industry Coordination Currency Decision FrameworkEmpathy as Negotiation Architecture Signature MoveThrow the Keys on the Table Signature MoveOwn a Small Piece of a Winner You Can't Run Operating PrincipleDecentralized Cowboys with Centralized Benchmarks Risk DoctrineWhat If Not as Decision Filter Strategic PatternScale Economics as Survival Doctrine Signature MoveAsk One Sharp Question to Crack Open Intel Signature MoveCash Flow Not Earnings as Currency Cornerstone MoveBuy the System, Pay With Its Own Cash Flow Identity & CultureIntrovert's Edge Through Listening Strategic PatternProfitable Service Over Growth for Growth Operating PrincipleIncorporating Problem Causers Into Solutions Capital StrategyMoral Obligation Bond Innovation Strategic PatternBear Hug Takeover Strategy Signature MoveRelationship Banking Over Transaction Focus Signature MoveGovernment Partnership During Business Crisis Signature MoveTheater in High-Stakes Negotiations Decision FrameworkSquare Pegs Into Round Holes Signature MoveCrisis Action Before Complete Data

Primary Evidence

"The magazine The Institutional Investor is celebrating its fortieth anniversary, and the room is full of stars, some with a slightly dimmer shine than others. Among those seated are the then ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet, junk bond trader Michael Milken who was sentenced to prison for insider trading in the 1990s, as well as a number of heavyweight investors and finance people. During the dinner, one of the founders of the largest and first buyout firms, KKR’s Henry Kravis, stands up and gives a short speech. He talks about how his firm set the industry standard for fees in 1976. They didn’t really know what level to settle on, so they randomly chose to take 20 percent of the profit. — When I look back, you might as well have gotten 25 percent, he says with a laugh, directed at his colleagues."

Source:The Finance Princes - The Story of the Swedish Venture Capitalists

"The Zlatan culture has elements of what KKR’s founder Henry Kravis describes when he says you have to be afraid, because “fear drives people to do great things.” The fear he’s talking about is the fear of not succeeding; you break boundaries to become a winner."

Source:The Finance Princes - The Story of the Swedish Venture Capitalists

"As we were bulking up, big, traditional, earnings-oriented media companies, including Westinghouse, Dow Jones, and American Express, were selling out. They learned that metropolitan areas were far more costly to wire, and residents could easily tune in broadcast channels in big cities. In 1988, we took aim at a target I had missed two years earlier, when Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), a big private equity firm, bought Storer Communications, the fourth-largest cable operator in the country, in a hostile leveraged buyout. Henry Kravis at KKR wasn’t a cable operator—they were financial investors betting on cable’s growth—and they had hit the timing just right."

Source:Born to Be Wired

"Forstmann Little entered the bidding. Teddy Forstmann was Henry Kravis’s strongest rival and most severe critic. If they went head-to-head on RJR, I knew it would be an all-out war."

Source:Dealings

Appears In Volumes

The Finance Princes - The Story of the Swedish Venture Capitalists Born to Be Wired Dealings