As the buyout movement gained momentum, the public response was anything but friendly. “The perception,” said Robert Kidder, the CEO of Duracell, “is that buyout specialists are robber barons, that they come into a company, cut it to the bone, and then strip it of its vitality just to make money in the short term.” How else could it be? Leverage a company up to the hilt, and one had little choice but to sell off assets, cut jobs, and then run the remains into the ground. This kind of criticism reached a crescendo in the press and the halls of Congress toward the end of the 1980s, and KKR found itself right in the middle of the controversy. Stung by charges that they were plundering assets, KKR partners wondered how their intentions and track record could be so misconstrued.

To Michael Tokarz, the criticism defied common sense. Imagine, he said employing an analogy favored by KKR partners,