D&B: One widespread criticism of boards is that they don't push hard enough to ensure a management succession program. Yours was done in a fishbowl and seems to have worked out very well.

Wriston: To most people's great surprise. We got a lot of free advice on that.

D&B: Is there any validity to this criticism?

Wriston: There are some boards that probably don't do as much as they might in that area. I personally don't know of any that I'm associated with that don't spend a great deal of time on succession. The first duty of a director is to fire the CEO if he isn't performing. When I was recruiting directors for Citicorp, that's the first thing I said: "Your primary function is to kick me off if we're mucking it up."

D&B: When you retired as chairman of Citicorp did you leave the board?

Wriston: Absolutely. Immediately.

D&B: Is that a policy that you put in place?

Wriston: No. It's gone both ways. My predecessor stayed on for a couple of years. His predecessor felt very strongly he should get out I personally think there's nothing worse than to look over the shoulder of your successor. In a corporation like Citicorp, it's a new world every morning. When I was there and would travel for two weeks, I'd come back and it would take two days to find out what went on while I was gone. If you go there once a month, you think you know a lot more than you do. If you speak up and give some advice, then you're perceived as interfering with the new management If you sit there like a bump on a log and say nothing, then what good are you? It's a double option to lose, in my opinion.

D&B: So you make a clean break?

Wriston: I'm in favor of taking off like a scalded dog instantly.

D&B: What was the first board you ever went on?

Wriston: General Mills. I haven't been on it in quite a while, but it was one of the most extraordinary ones I have served on. General Mills was a family company, with basically an inside board, in the commodity business - feed and flour. That company had the enormous courage to change its whole line of business. They did it themselves, and I happened to have a box seat on what went on.