Stiritz was the pioneer in the consumer packaged goods business when it came to stock buybacks. In the early 1980s, when he started to repurchase stock, buybacks were still unusual and controversial; as one of Ralston’s directors said at the time, “Why would you want to shrink the company. Aren’t there any worthwhile growth initiatives?” Stiritz, in contrast, believed that repurchases were the highest-probability investments he could make, and after convincing his board to support him, he became an active repurchaser. He would eventually repurchase a phenomenal 60 percent of Ralston’s shares,
...more
