I invest in unrecognized/underappreciated excellence. "Trying to spot a great manager remains a game very much worth playing". Mostly small caps
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Jun 11 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
Random thoughts on $calm - the largest egg producer in the US
The largest and the lowest cost egg producer in the US. Historically the stock delivered impressive returns but has not worked for the past decade
Dec 18, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Similar to people, companies also have chronological age and psychological age and they are not necessarily the same.
Psychological age is determined not by how is is the company, but by its openness to new ideas, by willingness to take risks and to learn.
Dec 10, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
On indexing/passive bubble in late 90s
Nov 29, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Measuring corporate culture (1/n)
2/n
Oct 4, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Sometimes I find management compensation policies that are certifiably crazy (a short thread)
here is 2017 compensation policy for Marc Bitzer, CEO of $WHR (since Oct 2017) - policy has not changed since then
Oct 4, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The high quality bank
Sep 15, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
My simplistic view on Adobe deal: they can’t innovate organically so plugging the lack of innovation with capital. Not good looking for their culture and leadership which are core LT value drivers 🤷♂️
What a good company does: Microsoft organically built Teams and annihilated competition
Eight attributes of corporate excellence (from In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies):
Feb 2, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
One small observation: I used to be quite skeptical to glassdoor reviews and recently changed my view a bit. There is certanly value in glassdoor reviews like in any information, the problem is - how do you filter out noise and find gold nuggets?
the goal is to find reviews that are (1) objective; (2) genuine; (3) actionable (or at least relevant)
Jan 11, 2022 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Some random thoughts on a possibility we are in the process of market regime change
Based on analysis of the past 30-40 years market regimes change every 10 years or so.
Dec 9, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I think management longevity is a quite underappreciated concept in investing
What is important is you need to understand how they make money: is it mostly from compensation or from stock appreciation?
Dec 7, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
CEO ownership at some founder led tech companies over time (since founding)
Given that TEAM has two co-CEOs with equal stakes, numbers are for one of them
Dec 6, 2021 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
Here is a simple framework for analysing professional CEOs (it's different from founder CEOs framework). You need a confluence of all 4 elements to get truly outstanding results.
Skill: they should have a good track record, have a strategy/plan, have a team, being able to learn fast; possess all qualities of a great leader etc
Dec 5, 2021 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
You probably have not heard before about former Graco CEO Pat McHale. But he is an interesting person and a true leader. During his time as a CEO of Graco (2007-21) stock delivered 500% return, having materially outperformed S&P 500. Some lessons from him are below.
McHale was a vocal critic of outsourcing manufacturing jobs
Aug 19, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Home Unimprovement: Was Nardelli's Tenure at Home Depot a Blueprint for Failure? knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/home-u…
LOL, it's like management can't artificially inflate stock price
Been studying management as a value driver for the past year. One of key takeaways - what really matters is not how good management team is in absolute terms, but how good management team is RELATIVE to management teams of competitors.
Potentially great setup: outstanding management vs mediocre management (example: Lisa Su vs Krzanich/Swan)
Feb 2, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Been reading a lot of shareholder letters recently. My personal Hall of Fame letters:
Amazon 1997 letter s2.q4cdn.com/299287126/file…