D&B: Should a chairman tolerate, if not encourage, a certain amount of dissent at the board level? Or is dissent too strong a word?

Wriston: Dissent is probably not the correct word, but people run boards different ways. My view is that if the chairman brings a proposition to the board and one or two directors say, "I don't think that's such a great idea for the following reasons," I would recommend the chairman at that point withdraw it and say, "Okay, I heard you. We'll send it back to the laundry. I'll come around and see you when I have some new data and we'll go back at it" That's the way the real world works in a well-run corporation, as opposed to the way outsiders think - "Gee, what was the vote on that?" A board that has to take a vote is a board that's in trouble.

D&B: Were you in that position occasionally?

Wriston: Sure, I took a lot of things off the table. Most of them we brought back, and when they came back they were a lot better through out and sometimes much-changed. What's the use of having all of that talent on the board if you don't listen to them?