The Outsiders

by Thorndike, William N., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9781422162675
• ISBN10: 1422162672
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-23
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Pr

Summary

It's time to redefine the CEO success story. Ask most people what describes an effective CEO, and you'll get a pretty consistent answer--"a seasoned manager with deep industry expertise." Magnify that through today's celebrity-saturated lens, and someone like former GE head Jack Welch becomes the poster child for CEO success: seasoned, but also charismatic, cutting-edge, and Wall-Street savvy. But is this the blueprint we should be following? Not necessarily. The performance of Welch and other high-profile CEOs doesn't come close to the achievements of the CEOs profiled in The Outsiders. Meet eight iconoclastic leaders who helmed firms where returns on average outperformed the S&P 500 by over 20 times. You may not know some of their names (Henry Singleton, Bill Anders, Tom Murphy)--but you will recognize many of their companies (General Cinema, Ralston Purina, The Washington Post Company, Berkshire Hathaway). In this book, you'll learn the consistent and rational traits that helped these select leaders achieve that exceptional performance. Humble, unassuming, and often frugal, these "outsiders" shunned Wall Street and the press and shied away from hot management trends. Instead, they honed specific (and less sexy) characteristics including: a laser-sharp focus on per share value rather than sales or earnings an exceptional talent for allocating capital and human resources the belief that cash flow, not reported earnings, determines a company's long-term value a penchant for giving local managers autonomy to release entrepreneurial energy Drawing on extensive research, Will Thorndike tells many of these leaders' stories for the first time--and extracts lessons for those of you hoping to lead your company to exceptional returns today.

Table of Contents

Preface: Singletonville	p. vii
Introduction: An Intelligent Iconoclasm	p. 1
A Perpetual Motion Machine for Returns: Tom Murphy and Capital Cities Broadcasting	p. 13
An Unconventional Conglomerateur: Henry Singleton and Teledyne	p. 37
The Turnaround: Bill Anders and General Dynamics	p. 59
Value Creation in a Fast-Moving Stream: John Malone and TCI	p. 83
The Widow Takes the Helm: Katharine Graham and The Washington Post Company	p. 109
A Public LBO: Bill Stiritz and Ralston Purina	p. 129
Optimizing the Family Firm: Dick Smith and General Cinema	p. 149
The Investor as CEO: Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway	p. 167
Radical Rationality: The Outsider's Mind-Set	p. 197
Epilogue: An Example and a Checklist	p. 215
Acknowledgments	p. 221
Appendix: The Buffett Test	p. 225
Notes	p. 227
Further Reading	p. 233
Index	p. 235
About the Author	p. 251
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