Category: Books

Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry (Amazon,) tells the story of RIM (Research In Motion,) the maker of the once popular Blackberry. (Excerpts.)

Thoughts

The very thing that made you successful has the potential to drag you down if you hold onto it too long. That is the tragic tale of RIM. It slayed established phone makers like Nokia, Siemens and Samsung in the corporate market with its email focused device. And just when it started to focus on the consumer market, it was dealt a body blow by Apple’s iPhone. Then Android came along and finished it off.

The following excerpt succinctly captures the challenge:

The company’s business had been disrupted on several levels, with no obvious path forward. Was RIM supposed to defend the QWERTY keyboard, or jump all-in and become a touch-screen smartphone maker? Was it supposed to challenge Apple at the high end of the smartphone market or focus on the lower end with devices like its Curve and Gemini models, which were driving heady sales gains in foreign markets where Apple wasn’t yet a factor? Should the company stick to its closed, proprietary software technology or open its platform? One of the biggest puzzles was what to do about apps. was RIM taking the right approach or should it stick to its “constructive alignment” narrative and leave the sale of apps to carriers?

It wasn’t that RIM was oblivious of Apple’s and Android’s threat to their handset business. It was that they badly bungled the response. The management was distracted and couldn’t agree on a strategy. However, with the old CEOs out and Prem Watsa’s help, $BBRY plots its next act.

How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In (Amazon,) contrasts companies that survive challenges to their business models with companies that failed to respond. (Excerpts.)

Thoughts

Reading Christensen, one can be lead to believe that a company that doesn’t earmark a large R&D budget is doomed to failure. “Disrupt thyself or have it done onto you.” However, Collins presents a long list of well known companies with huge R&D budgets that did not survive. The key take-away for me was:
“Innovation can fuel growth, but frenetic innovation — growth that erodes consistent tactical excellence — can just as easily send a company cascading through the stages of decline… Catastrophic decline can be brought about by driven, intense, hard-working, and creative people.”

It fits into the ROC world-view of the previous book (Outsiders) where CEOs donned the role of hard-headed investors, leading to an ever-growing cash pile. Cash on hand gives you options while dealing with disruptive innovations. The response to disruption need not always be a panicked acquisition or “ignore it and hope that it goes away.” There are other ways in which an incumbent can strike back, existing regulatory frameworks can be used to put up a long and expensive fight and can be a significant source of their competitive advantage. As long as you have cash, you can survive.

At the same time, where Outsiders’ CEOs were brutal in cutting out businesses that they thought were ‘dogs’, Collins takes a mellower approach: “A core business that meets a fundamental human need — and one at which you’ve become best in the world — rarely becomes obsolete.” But it does: the newspaper business in the US is a recent example (buggy whips, chimney cleaning…) Knowing when to cut your losses is a big part of running a successful business.

The book provides a useful template to identify companies in decline and it is worthwhile reading it for that alone. However, I disagree with its principal worldview that the primary/core business is always worth saving. Sometimes it is not.

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success (Amazon,) tells the story of quantitative CEOs and the effect they hand on their companies and their industries. (Excerpts)

Thoughts

I have always maintained that the only thing that matters is Return on Capital (ROC.) However, most people are focused on ‘busy work’ and playing ‘boss’ that they focus overly on growth, at the expense of returns. It is oftentimes better to be small and enjoy a high level of return on capital than grow and forgo margins.

The book is careful in portraying the CEO’s as ruthless psychopaths but in the words of Stiritz, “Leadership is analysis.” Indeed.

The Only Game in Town (Amazon,) walks us through how Central Banks picked up the slack when elected governments dropped the ball after the global financial crisis. Excerpts are here.

Thoughts

Central Banks acted as drug dealers when both banks and governments binged on credit. Greenspan and his Fed were so Randian that they turned a blind eye toward the principal-agent and moral-hazard problems that their endless bailouts and light-tough regulation was stoking. When the system imploded, their actions prevented a much-need rewrite of the status quo. We now have a world economy that is even more deeply hooked on easy credit, thanks to Central Bank interventions. Central Banks continue to enable governments to sweep deep-rooted problems under the rug. They do not deserve credit for “saving” the global economy that they collectively pushed over the cliff.

“I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim…” ~ Frida

In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules (Amazon,) lays out the inside story of the family behind the California-based hamburger chain with a huge cult following. Excerpts are here.

Thoughts

Father starts a business. Son expands it. Grandson destroys it. It is an extremely common story. From the book:

According to the Family Business Forum at the University of North Carolina, only 30 percent of all family businesses are successfully transferred to the second generation, while only 12 percent make it to the third. After that, less than 3 percent make a successful transition to the fourth generation.

The saving grace of the In-N-Out Burger story is that they did not IPO or take in outside capital. Unlike so many of family owned Indian businesses that plough through minority shareholders (United Breweries, the Tata conglomerate, the Congress Party, etc…)

Scions of successful business family should be allowed to cash their trust fund checks while sipping cocktails in the Côte d’Azur. Either leave the business to be run by professions or sell out. Life is too short to be spent in a golden cage.