It's Not the How or the What but the Who

{35}

A Culture of Unconditional Love

During my first decade in Egon Zehnder’s Buenos Aires office, our Argentine practice soared, recording the highest per capita financial performance in the whole firm for five consecutive years in the late 1990s. But we all know what happened in 2001. By the end of the year, Argentina’s economy had collapsed. It was the largest sovereign debt default in world history, and GDP fell by some 30 percent coupled with a 300 percent currency devaluation. Over twelve days, five different presidents took control of the country. One bank lost more money in a few weeks than it had accumulated over the previous century. There were companies with losses larger than their sales, and in one memorable month, the number of ...