David Rubenstein: I'm happy to be in Oslo. I didn't come here to lobby for a Nobel Peace Prize. So, if anybody wants to give me one, I'd be happy to take it. Um, but if Mr. Nobel were still alive today and I had a chance to meet with him, I would say to him, well, if you're going to have a peace prize, that's a good idea. But why don't you also have a peace prize or a prize for corporate culture? Because companies that are great and create good cultures can change the world just the way great peacemakers can. Think about it. The iPhone that was referenced earlier. The iPhone was maybe one of the most successful consumer products ever. And it has changed the world as have all smartphones as well in ways that I think benefit all of us. And so when you have a great company that produces a great product or great service, it can help the world just the way great peacemaking can help the world.

David Rubenstein: Now, when I was a little boy in Baltimore, Maryland, growing up, I can't honestly say that my role model was a great corporate leader. I was focused on baseball or sports or other things. And little boys in my era wanted to grow up to be sports heroes. Today, younger people in their teenage years probably don't want to be sports heroes as much as they want to be corporate leaders and entrepreneurs. And that has changed the culture of the world. Think about this. In any given year, there'll be roughly 50 to 60 million new companies started. 50 to 60 million new companies started around the world. About 6 to 7 million a year in the United States. About 8 million a year or so in Europe and maybe 20 to 25 million in Asia and other parts of the world as well. So 50 some million new companies started. After one year about half of those won't be around and after another two years another half won't be around and after another year about half more won't be around. What companies actually get to be there for 5 years or 10 years or 15 years? Well, they're companies that have charismatic leaders. Typically, it starts, a company might start with one or two or even three charismatic leaders that have a vision of what they want to do. Second, they have a product or a service that they're interested in selling to people and convincing people their lives will be better with that product or service. and they are not as focused on making money as they are on getting people to buy into their vision that this product or this service will make people's lives better. They also have a willingness to try to work hard to get to their end and their willingness to make certain that their product and their service will get a fair hearing from around the world.

David Rubenstein: But the companies that survive for five years and 10 years and 15 years and 20 years are companies that have more than a charismatic leader and a good product or good service. They have an incredible culture. And it's culture that enables companies to go from one generation to the next generation. As we all know, very rarely do you see a great company survive the founders's demise. It happens. And Steve Jobs is a perfect example of it happening. Steve Jobs started the company in the late 1970s. And he was actually thrown out of the company. Thrown out of his own company and he was out of the company for about 14 years before he was brought back. And then he changed the world by a number of products and services that Apple developed. And then when he passed away, he was leaving behind a company many people thought couldn't survive without the founder. But because it had an incredible culture, the company dramatically grew. When Steve died, the market capitalization of the company was about $350 billion. Today, it's about three and a half trillion. So, it's up about 10 times. How did the company go under Tim Cook's leadership to such a incredible place in the world? Well, it's because the culture that Steve Jobs had built was expanded by Tim Cook and ultimately that culture permeated the entire employee base and entire customer base of the company. And so what you have sometimes is you have a number of charismatic leaders who build a company. They sometimes can make it go to the next generation. Sometimes they cannot. It's very difficult, very difficult to make a company go much better after the founders are gone. It happens from time to time. We don't know for example what will happen to Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway was built by one charismatic brilliant investor and he made it one of the most valuable companies in the world. Now there's a transition and time will tell whether it works or not.

David Rubenstein: But generally if you have a good culture, a good culture will enable a company to survive. And what is a good culture? It's a good culture that a company has and enables it to survive not more than five or 10 or 15 years but 20 or 25 years or beyond is it's a concern about making certain that the customer comes first. Making certain that the employees are treated fairly. Making certain that everybody has a chance to succeed and has be listened to and make certain that you're producing a product or a service that really people want and really does something useful for society. And producing a culture like that is like your own DNA. Everybody here has the DNA from their parents. And your own DNA is really what shapes you to some extent. To some extent you can improve upon what your parents did. Some cases maybe you won't improve upon what your parents gave you. But many companies can improve upon what the founders gave them by using the DNA that the founders gave them. And they can even go beyond that. And so when you're looking at corporate culture, what you have to do is look at what the founders created. But can that founders culture go beyond when the founders leave the scene? And those are the great companies. The companies that survive for 25 years and 30 years and 40 years and beyond are the companies that people will always emulate and want to have as role models because they're the ones that have a culture that people admire. They're the ones that put customers first. They're the ones that put employees first. They're the ones that put the people that provide services to the company, the suppliers first. Making certain that you worry about other people more than yourself is the most important thing in corporate culture. And in corporate culture, the companies that survive the most and that really prosper are not the ones where the CEO is making the most amount of money or is worried about the amount of money he or she is making. Worrying about other people is what makes companies survive and do so well. So as we look at corporate culture and we talk about it today, just think about this. In the end, the companies that we all want to have as role models, the companies that we all would like to build or invest in, the companies we all think that we'd like to have our children build as well if they start their own companies would be ones that have a corporate culture that puts the customer first, that makes sure the employees are treated well, that has a vision of what they want to do for society to make the company succeed and make the world a slightly better place. The concern about making money is not generally the thing that makes a company prosper at the beginning. Certainly, you need to have a culture that really drives everybody and having everybody pull together. And that's what when I'm investing in companies, what I'm looking for is companies that have a culture where people want to come to work. They like working there. They think they're doing something useful for society. And making money is nice measure of success, but it's not the main measure of what a company's all about. And so as you think about corporate culture and through this conference today, just think about whether these companies that you're going to hear about are companies that have a culture that you want to have as you want to invest with. They're companies you'd like to work at, you'd be proud to have your children work at it, and the kind of companies you wish you had started because those are the kind of companies I think that we all want to have in our portfolio and all the kind of companies we want to have as companies that are trying to make the world a better place. companies have a good and everlasting corporate culture that really will survive the founders and that will ultimately make everybody think they're producing a product or service that makes the world a better place. Thank you very much.