Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio Spreads His Gospel of ‘Radical Transparency’<br />You could say that Mr. Dalio was applying one of his very own rules, known internally as Principle 188: “If you make a plan, follow through!”<br />Over four decades, Mr. Dalio, 68, has built Bridgewater, which has $160 billion in assets, into the<br />largest hedge fund firm in the world — bigger than the next two largest hedge funds combined.<br />194, only “believable” people “have the right to have opinions.”<br />James Cordes, who was hired several years ago as an internal adviser to the Bridgewater<br />management committee, said Mr. Dalio, “was a purist; you had to go all in.”<br />Mr. Dalio has talked about the firm as a place devoid of office politics, where employees don’t talk behind each other’s backs.<br />Of his rules, he writes in his book, “I don’t expect you to follow them blindly.” The firm said, “While there could be some concern<br />that media distortions might impact recruiting, the firm just had one of its best recruiting classes ever.”<br />Bridgewater also notes that business leaders like Bill Gates and Jamie Dimon have praised Mr. Dalio’s book.<br />“Every critical thing you’ve heard about Bridgewater could be true<br />and it still doesn’t take away from the basic project itself,” Professor Kegan said,<br />Mr. Dalio was contributing to “ as dramatic a transformation as the industrial revolution,”<br />he added, referring to the Bridgewater founder’s vision of the future of work.
