Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio and Michael Bloomberg Talk about Cults, Business Culture and Management

Ray Dalio, the chairman of Bridgewater Associates is one of the most famous investors that we track at Insider Monkey. Bridgewater is one of the largest hedge funds in the world with around $139 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM). Ray Dalio recently participated in a discussion on Bloomberg together with Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner at Bloomberg LP, at the “Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit.” The interview touched the point of relationships between managers and employees and how important it is to create a business culture rather than a cult, among other things.

Mr. Dalio said that within a business the manager always has to make the decision whether a person is suitable or not for a job. However, there are two ways to decide that, one being in an open discussion and another one “behind the scenes.” The chairman of Bridgewater stated that he believes that in meritocracy, these decisions should be made openly.

“Your job is to help those people when they are not doing well, to tell them they are not doing well and to tell them what to do to get better,” added Mr. Bloomberg.

In addition, Mr. Dalio spoke about the culture of a company. He said that there is a difference between a culture and a cult. A culture involves a company having clear values, while within a cult, the employees have to blidnly follow the leadership of the company.

“In our place it’s the opposite of a cult. In other words, it’s everybody being able to have their own points of view and being able to work through that with thoughtful disagreement. You have to have a system that means you have to have a culture. The United States has a democracy, these are things that we belive in […],” said Mr. Dalio.

Free Report: Warren Buffett and 12 Billionaires Are Crazy About These 7 Stocks

Let Warren Buffett, David Einhorn, George Soros, and David Tepper WORK FOR YOU. If you want to beat the low cost index funds by an average of 6 percentage points per year look no further than Warren Buffett’s stock picks. That’s the margin Buffett’s stock picks outperformed the market since 2008. In this free report, Insider Monkey’s market beating research team identified 7 stocks Warren Buffett and 12 other billionaires are crazy about. CLICK HERE NOW for all the details.