Why Values Matter

Values Matter

Trust.  Customers demand it from the companies they shop, trade and work with.  Employees demand it from their employers. Jobs, products and services will quickly become a commodity without trust.  Quickly traded to the next provider for a slightly lower price or flashier packaging Trust can stop this rush to the lowest cost or highest… Read More

Chasing Growth or Executing Your Strategy?

Chasing Growth?

According to The Conference Board 2011 CEO Report, the primary challenge facing CEOs is growth.  Not profit, not customer retention or expansion, not innovation, but growth!  This doesn’t make any sense. Growth is what is known as a lagging indicator.  In other words, lots of things cause growth to happen or not to happen, but… Read More

Improved Outcomes without an Increase in Skill

The Strategy of Checklists

That is how the manager of a billion dollar investment fund described the benefits of his pre-investment checklist in Atul Gawande’s book, “The Checklist Manifesto.” It turns out several fund managers feel the same way. Mohnish Pabrai of Pabrai Investment Funds and Guy Spier of Aquamarine Capital Management both incorporate formal checklists into their analysis of investments.… Read More

Increase the Value of Your Company

Valuation

In a purely economic sense, the value of any for-profit business is the present value of its cash flows.  A lot more goes into the valuation of a business and there are exceptions where businesses are valued based on metrics that most ordinary Americans could never understand (just think back to the internet bubble).  Factors… Read More

The Value of Values

Values

Can the core values of a company create economic value? Would you believe they can create 15x the returns that your stock portfolio is giving you? People often assume that sticking to your values can cost you, at least in the short term.  For instance, have you ever been in a negotiation where the other… Read More