Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder Read Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Bill Browder
have to fire everybody, Browder.” He was being a complete bastard, but at least he got my name right.
Wolfgang forced me to delete all the other strategic options, then had me pass the presentation off to another consultant to fix the analysis. BCG wound up recommending that Autosan fire the vast majority of its employees.
We returned to Sanok, and Wolfgang insisted I take the lead in presenting our findings. BCG, the World Bank, and Autosan’s entire senior management gathered in the company’s largest conference hall. The lights were dimmed and I started up the projector, my transparencies ready to go. First, I put out the summary slide about the overall level of firings. The gasps were audible. I then described the layoff recommendations department by department. Leschek nervously translated all of it. With every new slide the shock diminished and the anger increased, and people started challenging me at every turn. The World Bank representatives looked at John and Wolfgang, hoping that they would intervene, but both avoided our clients’ gazesand didn’t say a word. When I was done, every person in the room glared at me. The general manager was notably quiet, eyeing me with a look of profound disappointment.
I was supposed to have been Autosan’s knight in shining armor, but instead I was a traitor. I was filled with a mixture of anger, self-doubt, and humiliation. Maybe Eastern Europe wasn’t the place for me after all.
I left Poland knowing one thing for certain, though: I hated consulting.
Over the following months I thought a lot about Autosan, wondering what had happened and if I could have done anything differently. Communication with them was almost impossible, but later I got word that the Polish government had completely ignored BCG’s recommendations and continued to subsidize Autosan. Normally consultants hope that their advice is followed, but in this case I was thrilled that it hadn’t been.
My only remaining connection to Poland was my little stock portfolio, which I regularly checked. After leaving Sanok, they rose steadily. With every percentage point increase I became more and more convinced that I had found my calling.
What I really wanted to do was become an investor in the privatizations of Eastern Europe.
As it turned out, I couldn’t have been more right. Over the course of the following year my investments would double, and then double again. Ultimately, they went up almost ten times. For those who don’t know, the sensation of finding a “ten bagger” is the financial equivalent of smoking crack cocaine. Once you’ve done it, you want to repeat it over and over and over as many times as you can.
----
1 The Polish national airline.
5
The Bouncing Czech
I now knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life—only it was in a field that barely existed. Although the Iron Curtain had been lifted, nobody was investing any money in Eastern Europe. I knew that would eventually change, but in the meantime my best option was to simply stay at BCG—assuming they would let me.
After returning from the fiasco in Sanok, I kept my head down, praying that Wolfgang hadn’t submitted a recommendation to fire me. To my great relief, he was either too distracted or had forgotten, because nobody came to my office with a pink slip. I finally knew I was in the clear in late January 1991 when John Lindquist suggested that he and I write an article together. If I were going to be fired, why would one of the top partners in the firm want to write an article with me?
The piece he had in mind was about investing in Eastern Europe, which we would submit to a trade magazine called Mergers & Acquisitions Europe . I looked into M&A Europe and it appeared to have an almost nonexistent circulation, but I didn’t care. I was ready to exploit any avenue that would help me establish myself as an expert on investing in the region.
To write the article, I studied everything I could get my hands on. I read
Wolfgang forced me to delete all the other strategic options, then had me pass the presentation off to another consultant to fix the analysis. BCG wound up recommending that Autosan fire the vast majority of its employees.
We returned to Sanok, and Wolfgang insisted I take the lead in presenting our findings. BCG, the World Bank, and Autosan’s entire senior management gathered in the company’s largest conference hall. The lights were dimmed and I started up the projector, my transparencies ready to go. First, I put out the summary slide about the overall level of firings. The gasps were audible. I then described the layoff recommendations department by department. Leschek nervously translated all of it. With every new slide the shock diminished and the anger increased, and people started challenging me at every turn. The World Bank representatives looked at John and Wolfgang, hoping that they would intervene, but both avoided our clients’ gazesand didn’t say a word. When I was done, every person in the room glared at me. The general manager was notably quiet, eyeing me with a look of profound disappointment.
I was supposed to have been Autosan’s knight in shining armor, but instead I was a traitor. I was filled with a mixture of anger, self-doubt, and humiliation. Maybe Eastern Europe wasn’t the place for me after all.
I left Poland knowing one thing for certain, though: I hated consulting.
Over the following months I thought a lot about Autosan, wondering what had happened and if I could have done anything differently. Communication with them was almost impossible, but later I got word that the Polish government had completely ignored BCG’s recommendations and continued to subsidize Autosan. Normally consultants hope that their advice is followed, but in this case I was thrilled that it hadn’t been.
My only remaining connection to Poland was my little stock portfolio, which I regularly checked. After leaving Sanok, they rose steadily. With every percentage point increase I became more and more convinced that I had found my calling.
What I really wanted to do was become an investor in the privatizations of Eastern Europe.
As it turned out, I couldn’t have been more right. Over the course of the following year my investments would double, and then double again. Ultimately, they went up almost ten times. For those who don’t know, the sensation of finding a “ten bagger” is the financial equivalent of smoking crack cocaine. Once you’ve done it, you want to repeat it over and over and over as many times as you can.
----
1 The Polish national airline.
5
The Bouncing Czech
I now knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life—only it was in a field that barely existed. Although the Iron Curtain had been lifted, nobody was investing any money in Eastern Europe. I knew that would eventually change, but in the meantime my best option was to simply stay at BCG—assuming they would let me.
After returning from the fiasco in Sanok, I kept my head down, praying that Wolfgang hadn’t submitted a recommendation to fire me. To my great relief, he was either too distracted or had forgotten, because nobody came to my office with a pink slip. I finally knew I was in the clear in late January 1991 when John Lindquist suggested that he and I write an article together. If I were going to be fired, why would one of the top partners in the firm want to write an article with me?
The piece he had in mind was about investing in Eastern Europe, which we would submit to a trade magazine called Mergers & Acquisitions Europe . I looked into M&A Europe and it appeared to have an almost nonexistent circulation, but I didn’t care. I was ready to exploit any avenue that would help me establish myself as an expert on investing in the region.
To write the article, I studied everything I could get my hands on. I read
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