and the Carlyle Group - still acquires undervalued businesses, chops head count and other costs, and unloads them five to seven years later at handsome profits for Blackstone and its clients.īut with strong guidance from Gray, deals increasingly involve much longer-term investments. The firm - like private equity rivals KKR & Co. Gone are the days when Blackstone pursued only a traditional buy it/fix it/sell it strategy. The ultimate test of Gray’s managerial skills: whether he can get Blackstone’s employees to embrace his vision. Gray has also occasionally had to “manage upward” - gently cajoling Schwarzman to accept moves he initially resisted. Just recently, Gray had the unpleasant task of replacing a longtime colleague who ran Blackstone’s large hedge fund business with an executive he recently hired. Schwarzman is giving the charismatic, even-tempered Gray every opportunity to prove he can. “Jon Gray has been a strong performer for many years,” says Steven Kaplan, a University of Chicago business professor who does research on corporate successions. To be sure, great investment returns aren’t the only predictor of success in running a firm as big and complex as Blackstone. And Schwarzman has become a billionaire many times over. With Gray guiding investment strategy, Blackstone has piled up one record-breaking earnings quarter after another. Today, Blackstone is a financial behemoth with a range of businesses and investors far removed from the model created by Schwarzman and his cofounder, Pete Peterson, almost four decades ago. Despite a robust ego, he has allowed Gray ample leeway to transform Blackstone in his own image. Schwarzman has made it easy for Gray in other ways as well. “It made it much easier for me,” says Gray.
With no other heirs apparent in sight, nobody was forced to depart. “I’m still somewhat mystified,” he says about those queries. Schwarzman often gets asked by heads of other corporations how Blackstone avoided a rocky transition to new leadership. Under 74-year-old cofounder, chairman, and CEO Stephen Schwarzman, there has been a slow-motion, drama-free passing of the baton to Jonathan Gray, 51, now the president and COO, without ruffling feathers among colleagues. Then there is the case of Blackstone Inc., the world’s largest private equity and alternative-asset management firm. Or Chuck Schwab, who tossed aside his first successor after less than a year and keeps his current CEO, Walt Bettinger, on a tight leash, expecting multipage, single-spaced memos from him every other Friday.Įven when the boss steps down gracefully, the successor is frequently chosen after an undignified bake-off between rival executives, with the talented losers being shown the door. Think of Sandy Weill, who as head of Citigroup created the greatest financial services conglomerate of his era and then defenestrated the young, very able Jamie Dimon for seeming too eager to replace him. Is there a more compelling business plot for a Netflix melodrama than the clash between the founder of a financial services giant and the anointed successor?
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