"I would rather throw a viper down my shirtfront" · Transcript · BuffettMungerGPT

WarrenIn the typical large corporation, there's a comp committee. And as I pointed out in the past, they don't put Dobermans on the comp committees, usually. They look for chihuahuas that have been sedated. And you have on one side of the table some people that usually are spending an hour or two and getting presented with a bunch of material by the Human Relations Department and some outside consultants. And they get handed a sheet of paper that shows them comparables elsewhere. And everybody thinks they're CEOs in the top 25 percent or something. And so there's a ratcheting effect that takes place. And I've never seen the head of the Human Relations Department or a consultant come in and say, this bozo you've got is only worth about half what you've been paying. I mean, it's just isn't going to happen. So it's, you know, it's a situation where the intensity of interest on both sides is seldom equal. The directors are often dealing with something my friend, Tom Murphy, in the past, is called play money. and the CEO was dealing with something very dear to his heart. Well, I would rather throw a viper down my shirt front than hire a compensation consultant.