Mr German Corporate Governance – a tribute
When he came into the world in 1943, it was as it was for Robert De Niro, Mick Jagger, Roy Black and Silvia of Sweden – they were born into a bloody world.
Sheep is the mythical animal and Water the element for a person born on this day, 29 May, if we consider the very old art of Chinese astrology.
When he was 20 years old, with his university entrance qualifications under his belt, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary, together with the Nepalese Tenzing Norgay, reached the highest point on earth for the first time – on 29 May, his birthday.
When he joined Deutsche Bank, Hermann Josef Abs was still the model for the bank and for bankers – then he saw Alfred Herrhausen come, and all too violently go. At DB he had found a corner that he worked, led and took charge of for decades – now only his corner has survived in the German banking world, and today, with nearly 44 billion in assets under management and 300 million in commissions, is the last asset manager of a bank. When in 2004 the Deutsche took over the last shares of the asset manager once confirmed the day after his birth, his fate was decided backstage at a general meeting.
The one who sent him away became for decades a problem for the bank. He instead went and acted on what he had seen – he wanted to make the world better and more decent, to balance out the various currents in the same and opposite directions as skilfully as good corporate governance requires. He was Mr Corporate Governance Germany, though preferably on the golf course and not with tuba and trombone on the concert stages of these issues. He kicked and stabbed, he won and moved on – leaving by the roadside few corpses, but many of the chastened. I say thank you to him for many a lesson, for many a strategic idea, for what he did – because it had to be done. I will continue to pay attention to what comes between the words on his lips, for that is where his thoughts and the next thing he will say and do are.
He has just had a birthday – we salute Christian Strenger.
70 years young – my wishes are: stay fresh, healthy, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for good corporate governance.
Other children of 1943 are Lech Walesa, Horst Köhler and Jil Sander “Queen of the Less”....