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The Infant Learner
Some stuff I read this week:
A. This week’s Special:-
Henry Singleton: The Outsider
Dr.Henry E. Singleton ( 1916-1999) was a business genius.He co-founded Teledyne in 1960 and turned the company from a industry minnow into a highly profitable U.S. corporation. Growth was driven through acquisitions of deeply undervalued public companies.Although Singleton would only acquire companies that promised a high rate of return.If no such deals could be found.Henry Singleton devoted Teledyne’s capital towards making stock repurchases and tender offers. Just like Buffett, Singleton refused to pay a dividend because Teledyne could reinvest earnings at over 30% a higher rate than could be achieved elsewhere.
He was one of greatest CEO’s whose story has been covered by William N. Thorndike in his outstanding book The Outsider.
An investor who put money into Teledyne stock in 1963 achieved an annual return of 20.4% over 28 years ( 1963-1990 ), or a 180x return on invested capital vs. 8.62x for the S&P 500 and 22x for other comparable conglomerates.
Dr.Singleton was more than just a great capital allocator, he was a visionary, entrepreneur, and an excellent business person who believed that the key to his success was people-talented people who were creative,good managers and doers.Once he had those manager in place,he gave them complete autonomy to meet agreed upon goals and targets.
The best investors are avid history students of the market,companies, and great investors.The more you learn from others, the less expensive your own tuition will be. Not to study the Teledyne story and the managerial success of Dr. Henry Singleton and his management teams would be tragic. Dr. Singleton was both a great operator as well as capital allocator. Kindly refer the below links:
Link 1 :Henry Singleton Letter ( BFW )
Link 2 :Teledyne Case Study of an Excellent Capital Allocator ( CS )
B. Entrepreneurial Diary
( “Business means solution of a particular problem and Creating value for customer as well as value for company ” – Paramjeet Redu )
How to Design a Winning Business Model ( HBR )
Nandan Nilekani:Disruption in Financial Services (YT)
Ramesh Raskar awarded $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize ( MIT )
Elon Musk : How to Build the Future ( YT )
Company Profile : Blue Dart ( FORBES )
CEO Profile : Ronnie Screwvala , UTV ( OB )
Process versus Outcome ( FS )
C. Other Stories
Art of stock picking : Charlie Munger ( CB )
A discussion about business failures ( PPFAS )
Two Key Checklist Items ( BH )
Top Management Remuneration ( BS )
How To Make Money In Cyclical Stocks ( OT )
Mislead by the PE ratio ( VII )
Business Analysis : Olympia Industries ( V2W )
Research Report : Barnewell Industries ( SA )
Dead as a Severed Horse’s Head (AB )
The One-Rupee Trick: How banks cut their zero-balance Jan Dhan accounts ( IE)
“I read everything: annual reports, 10k’s, 10q’s, biographies, histories, five newspapers a day. On airplanes, I read the instructions on the backs of seats. Reading is key. Reading has made me rich over time” – Warren Buffett
“I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you” – Charlie Munger
You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better”- Carol Dweck