Book Summary: The Power of Thinking Outside the Box: The Lessons of 8 Executives Who Overcame Seemingly Unsolvable Problems
The book is a case study of 8 CEOs of public companies who achieved extraordinary returns in their companies' stock value, and isolates the factors that led them to such success.
The book is a case study of 8 CEOs of public companies who achieved extraordinary returns in their companies' stock value, and isolates the factors that led them to such success.
Book: The Power of Thinking Outside the Box: The Lessons of 8 Executives Who Overcame Seemingly Unsolvable Problems
Author: William N. Thorndike Jr.
Rating: 8⁄10
Date Read: January-2019
Description:
Really good! The author basically looks for extraordinary outliers relative to the market and over long periods of time, and tries to understand what points they had in common.
He managed to find several common traits, but here are some of the ones that caught my attention the most:
- they were all people who avoided publicity in order to focus on their work.
- extremely decentralized operations, extremely centralized capital allocation
- The CEOs were the ones deciding capital allocation, and they never outsourced this task;
- They always determined the minimum acceptable rate of return before making an investment / acquisition
- They were great at calculating risks and returns
- Instead of issuing stock, they bought it back (which was extremely unconventional)
- They were all extremely careful with taxes, and always had great tax-specialist accountants to help them
- Greedy when everyone was careful, careful when everyone was greedy.
- They didn't hesitate to exit investments that were losing money, and to sell businesses when they were highly valued.
These were some of the CEOs' traits. There's a lot more! I recommend reading the book.