Charles Koch, Chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, discusses the conglomerate's pivot toward tech investing through Koch Disruptive Technologies and Koch Strategic Platforms.
Opinion
Koch: Top-down command-and-control is the world's biggest problem
“This is our, the biggest problem in the world and it always has been this what Nietzsche called and Victor Franklin called the will to power. And that is, ah, this top-down approach that, because I'm smarter than you, or I want power over you, ah, to approach …”
Insight
Koch: Public attacks on our philanthropic network actually attract supporters
“These attacks in many ways help us, because they call attention to what we're doing. So people are interested in finding out, and when they find out they find that what we're doing is the opposite of what we're attacked for. And so it attracts more people to w…”
Opinion
Koch: Philanthropies chasing politically correct trends are often destructive
“And you see, philanthropies doing that. Just, okay, whatever's current in choice, whatever's politically correct, we're, we'll do that. And a lot of that is destructive”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Koch: No society in human history has ever truly had equal rights
“All we've got to do is move toward a society of truly equal rights, which we've never truly had. No society has truly had it. Equal rights and mutual benefit, where people succeed by helping others improve their lives, and everybody has the opportunity to real…”
Insight
Koch: Empowering individual contribution drives progress over coercion
“What we find It makes people's lives better, and improves society, improves well-being, and leads to progress, is empowering everybody to contribute. That is going from, ah, forcing people to do things, motivating them to find their gift, believe in themselves…”
Assertion Partly supported
Koch Industries grew 10,000-fold versus Koch's initial 70-fold projection
“And so I projected, I, you know, being a math, I plotted it all out if we grow this much, and by the time I retire, we will have grown seventy-fold, I predicted. And so that was my goal. And so far it's been more than 10,000 fold.”