Robert Benmosche has been talking to Reuters again - from his 12-bedroom holiday home in Croatia no less. And it seems he is quickly learning what you can and can’t do as head of a high profile company.
In his latest chat with the news agency, the new CEO of AIG reveals why he called Andrew Cuomo, New York’s attorney general, a “criminal” who did not “deserve to be in office” at a recent closed-door staff meeting in Texas:
“You can characterize me as a goon or you can characterize me as somebody who is attempting to deal with a complex issue of a very demoralized employee force and said those things to them in confidence to reassure them that they no longer have to be afraid that”.
“They were afraid that the bonus issue may come back again, and it was dealing with their fear, and I think I overstated myself. I was a little too aggressive in my comments, but I was responding to enormous fear on the part of many, many associates.”
“One should not misconstrue my aggressive comments — which were aggressive,” he said in the interview. “But, on the other hand, I think the government understands that I said what I said”.
“But one should not assume that my aggressiveness is disrespect.”
Er, we sort of get the idea. Bob was trying to boost morale by appearing to be tough, even though he subsquently apologized to Cuomo’s office.
Anyway, the important point is that the AIG boss won’t be making the same mistake again:
If there is anybody critical of Bob it is Bob,” he said, referring to himself in the third person. “And Bob has to recognize that when he is having private meetings, that occasionally somebody is going to want to tape it and allow the press to get things I said in private, and that’s unfortunate. I have to be aware of that.”
Now, all someone has to do is to tell Bob to stop giving candid interviews to news wires while he is on holiday and we might be getting somewhere.
Related links:
Incredible optimism, AIG edition - FT Alphaville
AIG’s new chief executive worth 7 million times the old one - FT Alphaville
