Visible Hand
TIM COHEN: What new adventures lie ahead for Investec as it prepares to bid farewell to Stephen Koseff?
The Investec CEO’s great skill has been his unique form of gruff friendliness and his palpable good sense
In 1890, the British magazine Punch published a cartoon by John Tenniel depicting German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck dressed as a maritime pilot stepping off a ship while the young German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II watched from above the gangplank looking unfazed and unconcerned. The cartoon was entitled “dropping the pilot” and followed Bismarck’s resignation after being the central figure not only in Germany but in the whole of Europe for almost half a century. The cartoon was so prescient, that it is republished in almost every history textbook about the period, and it’s often depicted as the moment Germany started down the wrong track. There is something of the same quality about Stephen Koseff’s departure from Investec (which actually happens only in mid-2019), the company he was instrumental in founding and which he led so magnificently for almost 30 years. Of course, we don’t know whether the decision to split the company into banking and asset management divisions will turn ...
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