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	REMARKS TO THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE AND BOOK WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION PADRE ISLAND TX JUNE 8, 1988

Thank you, Jim (Cochran).

Good to be back in this area. . .learned a lot here in ’52 and ’53 when I first started out as a geologist for Phillips. . .learned about bureaucracy; $300,000 wasted to avoid a dry hole.

Lately, I’ve been selling books and making speeches. . .18 speeches in May to 11,000 people.

I promote the book all the way. . .you sell the book; I sell the philosophy behind it.

I wrote my autobiography because I felt I had an important story to tell.

My dealings have received a lot of press coverage over the years. . .but the articles were just snapshots.

Folk hero; black hat; comeback.

The story needed to be told uninterrupted. . .I wanted to paint the whole picture.

Boone is not just about business deals.

It’s about success, what it means and what it takes to succeed.

It’s about money. . .how to make it and how to lose it.

But most of all, it’s about Corporate America, and where it went wrong. . .a side of American business few have ever seen.

I’ve written a new introduction for the paperback. A lot has happened since the hardback was released. . .insider trading, the rise of the bull market and its fall on October 19. . .and an erosion of the free market.

Yet the story that Boone tells is as timely today as when it first came out.

Nobody has challenged the book’s accuracy. . .the facts have stood the test.

I explain in the book the need for major oil companies to restructure, and I talk about how Big Oil’s CEOs have resisted change.

Our forced changes saved this country $100s of billions (Dean LaBaron)

Today, the business community has come to realize that takeovers in the oil patch were just a part of a much larger issue. . .the restructuring of Corporate America.

When the hardback came out, I had about 25% of the experts on my side. . .today it’s about 75%.

Academics have verified my observations with their studies.

The studies prove that what we’re seeing is a transformation of American business:
—Focus on results, not size;
—Create value, not empires

This restructuring has evolved exactly as we predicted it in the book.

Restructuring. . .a rethinking of the old conglomerate theory. . .size syndrome.

First speech I made on restructuring. . .L.A. in 1982. . .guy said he wasn’t sure what I was talking about. . .Symphony.

I talk more about Fred in the book. . .perfect example of the Good Ol’ Boys.

He wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand the issue back then. . .many people still don’t.

The Good Ol’ Boy CEOs are still out there, lobbying to maintain the status quo.

I said we need to phase them out to get competitive, and we are.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the ones who are left are more powerful and more entrenched than ever.

They’ve united to fight for their 4 Ps (Explain).

This group is easy to identify. . .No stock. . .Big salary. . .Big bonus. . .Big mouth:
—And something that’s spread like wildfire since Boone was first released. . .anti-shareholder provisions designed to protect management from shareholders

But at the same time, shareholder activism and awareness has spread. . .I think Boone had a lot to do with that.

I get letters every day. . .I never make a speech where I’m not asked to sign books.

The best way to beat entrenched management is by upgrading the public’s knowledge of CEOs’ abuses.

47 million U.S. shareholders: millions more in pension funds. . .so it’s a large and diverse group of people affected by managements’ failures.

That’s why I wrote the book, and that’s why I’ve donated the proceeds from Boone to the United Shareholders Association, which my wife Bea and I formed in August 1986.

We’re trying to reestablish the basic principle that made this country the most powerful economic force in history:
—Creating value for owners

Stick to that principle and everything else falls in place. . .employees, communities, consumers.

When I wrote Boone, I took up a cause more important than my own financial gains. . .the restoration of America’s competitiveness and prosperity.

I donated more than 700 hours of my time to write Boone and have given speeches across America on the need for restructuring. The paperback should be a big seller with young people. . .80,000 students in past 5 years. . .constant requests for commencement addresses.

I promise you. . .nobody will sell Boone harder than Boone.

Thank you.

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