Posts Tagged “business”
Ross • 7th Nov 2009 • Learning • books, business, business school, education, harvard, MBA, reading
I have just finished reading Philip Delves Broughton’s book on the topic (called Ahead of the Curve in the US). I loved the book: it’s one of the best reads of my year. It has also made me want to go to HBS. I think that the school comes across as a place that teaches well and broadly, that strives for a balance of the academic and the social, and which, fundamentally, tries hard. It’s a shame that in his subsequent work, Broughton appears to blame MBAs for the failures of the world economic system. Taking such a position turns him from an interesting outsider with a fresh perspective to a caricature of a bitter critic peddling exposé. It’s not clever.
Ross • 27th Oct 2009 • Learning • advice, business, presentations, strategy
In a chapter of Winning that appeals to the consultant in me, Jack Welch thinks that you can sum up strategy in five slides.
- What the Playing Field Looks Like Now
- Who are the competitors in the business, large and small, new and old?
- Who has what share, globally and in each market?
- What are the characteristics of this business? Is it commodity or high value or somewhere in beteen? Is it long cycle or short? Where is it on the growth curve? What are the drivers of profitability?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? How good are their products? How much does each one spend on R&D? How big is each sales force? How performance-driven is each culture?
- Who are this business’s main customers, and how do they buy?
- What the Competition Has Been Up To
- What has each competitor done in the past year to change the playing field?
- Has anyone introduced game-changing new products, new technologies, or a new distribution channel?
- Are there any new entrants, and what have they been up to in the past year?
- What You’ve Been Up To
- What have you done in the past year to change the competitive playing field?
- Have you bought a company, introduced a new product, stolen a competitor’s key salesperson, or licensed a new technology from a start-up?
- Have you lost any competitive advantages that you once had – a great salesperson, a special product, a proprietary technology?
- What’s Around the Corner
- What scares you most in the year ahead – what one or two things could a competitor do to nail you?
- What new products or technologies could your competitors launch that might change the game?
- What M&A deals would knock you off your feet?
- What’s Your Winning Move?
- What can you do to change the playing field – is it an acquisition, a new product, globalisation?
- What can you do to make customers stick to you more than before and more than to anyone else?
If you run all or part of a large business, buy this book, of which Warren Buffett says: “No other management book will ever be needed.” Now to try and apply this thinking to public policy…
Ross • 8th Oct 2009 • Learning • buffett, business, finance, investing, investment, shares, stock market, stocks
Very slowly, I am learning about investment and investing. I do believe that investing requires learning: I am firmly in the ‘value’ school. From the various books I have read and people to whom I have spoken, this is the wisdom I have distilled to date, with sources and my subsequent embellishments.
- Never invest what you can’t afford to lose. From Caleb Loom, my grandfather. You need an income, and you need shelter. Don’t do anything that jeopardises this. Your investment baseline should not be zero, nor should you consider all your assets as part of your portfolio.
- Invest on the basis of fundamental value. From Benjamin Graham. Every system is phoney, every day-trader a gambler. Patience is not only a virtue, but a competitive advantage.
- Diversification reduces your potential for large losses, but also your potential for large gains. From Warren Buffett (who put it more succinctly, “When your advisor tells you to diversify, he’s telling you he doesn’t know what he’s talking about”). Note that (as John Kay would argue) diversification is the best way to ensure modest growth – but by prioritising the need for diversifying your portfolio, you are adding another reason to buy a stock: for the sake of diversity. This is one reason too many. The only reason you should have is because it’s a good stock.
- Hammer down your investment costs. From John Kay. Fees and charges eat your return. Buy and sell smartly – take advantage of deals, buy in bulk. Try for a maximum 1% annual overhead.
I hope to learn much, much more, but this isn’t a bad start.
Ross • 26th Aug 2009 • Living • business, filesharing, internet, law, p2p, sweden
“You are not supposed to buy an illegal site,” he said. “This is out-of-the-box thinking.”
That’s Hans Pandeya of Global Gaming Factory, on the decision to purchase filesharing site The Pirate Bay for £4.3m, via BBC News.
Ross • 16th Jul 2009 • Thinking • business, computers, innovation, software, technology
My take on Microsoft’s future strategy, now Google is planning to launch its own OS:
- MS revenues stable in the short-term, as installed Windows base still high
- Google is continuing a broad strategic shift, from being the providers of an excellent, innovative search product to being providers of a platform who actually don’t innovate as much as they like to think
- The ‘providers of a platform who actually don’t innovate as much as they like to think’ business is/was MS’s home territory. As such, Google’s entry represents a significant threat
- However, MS has more to offer as a firm that provides ‘excellent products’ - Exchange/Office and Xbox being the two best examples
- Although it will be painful, MS should be prepared for the inevitable loss of platform dominance and concentrate entirely on backing great products in its core area(s) of expertise: business productivity and communication (note that Android phone and iPhones have adopted Exchange, and that Google now licences ActiveSync) and home entertainment (Windows Media Centre beats Apple TV hands down, and I can’t see Google Launching a G-Box)
Long term, I think MS needs to start behaving like a more standard, mature company. That means better dividends, surrendering of legacy markets and ruthless focus. This may eventually mean a split between the business apps firm and the home media entertainment firm.
Ross • 26th May 2009 • Living • business, CSR, economics, environment
The economist, academic, author and serial non-exec John Kay and the BBC Business reporter Peter Day came to speak at a work event last week. I’m a big John Kay fan, having read most of his books and columns. However, this was the first time that I’d met him. He didn’t disappoint, except for sounding less Scottish than I’d imagined he would.
John’s best line, in my opinion, was going further than asking whether businesses should engage in ‘corporate social responsibility’ to actually ask by what right they did this – recognising that their choices for charitable causes may not be the same as their customers’ or shareholders’. This has stuck with me, not least because I walk past a branch of bath-bomb outlet Lush (complete with TRAINS NOT PLANES! window poster) on my way to and from work.
Peter Day, on the other hand, I have never particularly taken to. He seemed much more qualified to ask questions than to answer them. This makes him both a good choice for a business reporter and a poor choice of panel member. However, to give him credit, he gave a good answer to a question from the floor about the role of the media in the current crisis, staunchly defending Robert Peston, the BBC’s business editor who seems to be unfairly loathed for having the audacity to do his job well while being in the posession of a slightly odd voice.
Ross • 4th May 2009 • Thinking • books, business, economics, reading, risk
Last night, over some fish and chips in their new house, I mentioned to some good friends that I was reading Peter L. Bernstein’s Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. I am progressing slowly, but enjoying it a great deal. It has one of the best introductions that I have read for some time. And it has given me the word astragalus, which would make the ideal name for my second hedge fund… after Palomino.
Ross • 24th Apr 2009 • Learning • business, economics, finance, reading
I’ve just finished John Kay’s The Long and the Short of It. In the terms of the analysts that the book derides, I’m upgrading my recommendation from a Hold to a Buy.The book does have some downsides: I think it over-promises on investment advice and, at times, it rehashes many ideas from the author’s regular columns in the Financial Times and elsewhere. For example, there is little in the chapter on future regulatory reform that isn’t said more succinctly in this Guardian piece. Perhaps this is a remnant of Kay’s working methods on his previous books The Hare and the Tortoise and Everlasting Lightbulbs, which were collections of columns by design. Still, this is only a problem for people who have read other John Kay books and articles. Readers new to his admirably direct and forthright style will not suffer this slightly disappointing déjà vu.
Despite these gripes, it’s still a good, and quick, read – a good deal better than Hugo Dixon’s Introduction to Finance, which I struggled through at the end of last year. In fact, I read Kay’s book so quickly that I’ve set aside half an hour this weekend to nip back through the investment advice sections and précis the advice. The big lesson I do remember (and it is a key theme through the book) is that holding many unrelated and diversified risks can reduce portfolio risk more than just holding supposedly safe blue chips. Frankly, the book was worth it for this advice alone.
It’s also worth mentioning that the book has a great ‘Bookshelves and bookmarks’ bibliography at the end, with some further reading recommendations. I’m now awaiting about six tomes from Amazon Marketplace to build up my investment library.
Ross • 20th Apr 2009 • Learning • business, credit crunch, economics, finance
I’v always been into microeconomics (particularly of the individual and of the firm) but the breadth of that field means that I’ve not really ever got to grips with specialist financial products in anything more than the broadest terms. I understand the principles and could probably have a decent conversation on Mogdaliani-Miller or Black-Scholes, but two days ago I didn’t understand what CDOs were, or how they were created. Thankfully, John Kay’s The Long and the Short of It is proving useful to refresh the basics, and this Harvard Business School article (found via Marginal Revolution) was very interesting on structured finance and the limitations of rating agencies. I recommend both.
Ross • 8th May 2008 • Living • books, business, ecommerce, Friends, web
Katie, a friend and ex-colleague, has recently launched a business with her friend Viola. Untitled Books is an independent online bookshop. Its USP is that it focuses only on spectacular books, which it reviews fully and sorts thematically, on a tarot-style wheel (above). It’s much more inspiring and personal than the big web book outlets and prices are comparable. I’ve just put in my first order, which should keep me going for a month or so at least.
