“I’ll Be Gone—You’ll Be Gone” -- Democracy vs. Kleptocracy

06-25-2011 • Gonzalolira.blogspot.com/

“IBG–YBG.” Those inscrutable letters say it all, once you decipher the acronym: “I’ll Be Gone—You’ll Be Gone.” In other words, by the time this mess blows up, we’ll be out of the picture, and therefore scot-free. By the time this blows up, it’ll be somebody else’s problem. By the time this blows up, we’ll be enjoying the riches we took, sipping piña coladas on a white sandy beach, while some other chumps will be left cleaning up the mess we left—a mess we knew beforehand we would eventually be leaving behind. IBG–YBG Of course, the IBG–YBG mentality doesn’t exist with someone who actually owns their company—or someone who’s spent their life building a company. In the case of La Polar’s competitors—Cencosud, D&S and Falabella—they are all controlled by either their self-made founder (Horst Paulmann in the case of Cencosud), or the children of the self-made founder (the Ibáñez brothers with D&S, the Falabella sisters with Falabella). None of these companies subscribe to the IBG–YBG mentality—of course not. And they especially don’t subscribe to it as they are all self-consciously leaving their businesses to their offspring. “The cow grows fat under the watchful eye of the owner.”