Jossey-Bass, 2014, [Business] Grade 3
The first word that strikes me when I think of The Soft Edge is Infotainment. Rich Karlgaard, entrepreneur, columnist and publisher of Forbes magazine is a genuinely skilled writer and this book is a pleasure to read. The set up is a string of coherent short stories on different topics... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
John Wiley & Sons, 2013, [Business] Grade 4
In the second half of the 1980’s shareholders were waking up to the enormous waste inflicted by managements who instead of acting as trustees for the owners milked the companies for perks, money and social benefits. This pawed the way for the corporate raiders of the day, but also... Further Reading... Link to Amazon...
Penguin Group, 2009, [Surrounding Knowledge] Grade 4
The video “How great leaders inspire actions” has been viewed over 3 million times at YouTube and it’s the 3rd most viewed TED-talk ever. Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle of “Why, How and What” is a hit. This book builds and expands on the presentation trying to codify the reason why... Further Reading... Link to Amazon...
John Wiley & Sons, 2007, [Business] Grade 4
If you are interested in applied management theory, this is probably the book for you. At first, however, I was not impressed. I thought I had read more updated and sophisticated theory, but after a while the book became more and more fascinating. Suddenly I realized that Koch... Further Reading... Link to Amazon...
John Wiley & Sons, 2012, [Equity Investing] Grade 4
The mind constantly plays tricks with investors. In a stressful - potentially loss-making - situation the negative pressure risks short-circuiting our analytical ability and when looking at new investments greed makes the investor susceptible to buying into management’s song and... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
Palgrave Macmillan 2014, [Equity Investing], Grade 5
“Hang out with people better than you, and you cannot help but improve”. This book by one of the most prolific second-generation Buffetteers is about building the appropriate investment foundation, about setting up the right environment, about the triumphs of an inner scorecard... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
Princeton University Press, 2011, [Economics] Grade 5
Beyond Mechanical Markets is among the best and most rewarding books I have read for a long time. Two renowned professors at NYU and UNH, present an economic theory—Contingent Market Hypothesis—that explains how the financial markets really work. I believe most... Further Reading... Link to Amazon...
John Wiley & Sons, 2014, [Equity Investing] Grade 4
In a capitalistic economy with free market entry new competition will ensure that any existing company’s surplus financial returns will evaporate over time. That is, unless there is something that interferes and protects the incumbents from new competition. Few have spent more time... Further Reading... Link to Amazon...
Prentice Hall, 2009, [Surrounding Knowledge] Grade 3
According to Daniel Pink’s latest bestseller To Sell is Human we are all in sales now. Shaun Varga would probably agree and this book will help you excel in one specific sales process, the pitch. Varga - after a long career in advertising, PR and marketing - manages a consultancy... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
Canongate, 2009, [Surrounding Knowledge] Grade 4
To get the job done an employer needs to motivate his staff. According to Daniel Pink the traditional theories on how that’s done are outdated and needs an upgrade. Business managers are using old tools. Pink is an accomplished business journalist who, by popularizing... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
John Wiley & Sons, 2005, [Business] Grade 4
The old ceremonial type of passive board that rubber-stamped CEO’s decisions are gone in most parts of the world. Boards nowadays have a real say in how a company will conduct its business. At the same time institutional investors, NGOs and other parties have increased their... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
Crown Publishers, 2014, [Economics] Grade 4
Geithner’s Stress Test must be a perfect summer reading for financial markets addicts. It is engaging, informative and gives an alarming awakening for anyone who has forgotten the Global Financial Crisis’s initial drama. I even got the same thrill from it as from “Too Big Too Fail”... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
BN Publishing, 2009, [Equity Investing] Grade 4
As a book these 100 pages is a triviality. It contains four speeches for MBA students made by Warren Buffett between 1998 and 2005. On the other hand the content of the talks are far from trivial, even if the mundane language of Buffet could mask the importance of what is being said. Further reading... Link to Amazon...
Wiley & Sons, 2007, [Equity Investing] Grade 5
Reading this book in 2007, it had an immense impact on my thinking. The gravitating pull from valuations in a range-bound market – one of the book’s core ideas – nicely interlinked with the identification of great franchises. Active Value Investing also hit home in a few other ways... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
Wiley & Sons, 2010, [Business] Grade 3
Here’s the scenario: Exactly one decade into a successful, industry-transforming journey as a housebuilder of the future – in the booming housing market of the U.S. in the 1960s – the company suddenly decides to acquire a sleepy, family-owned life insurer, using up a considerable... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
McGraw-Hill, 1984 1st ed, [Equity Investing] Grade 5
Some strands of value investing are relatively quantative in their focus on the replacement cost of balance sheet items etc. A growth investor invests in the unknowable future of a company. In some respects growth investing then is more of an art form where some forms of value investing... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
John Wiley & Sons, 2010, [Equity Investing] Grade 3
The ever-changing technology sector is tricky to cover in a text with long duration like a book. The authors, at the time employees at California based Fisher Investments, handle the reasonably task well. Today’s trendy topics such as Social, Big Data and Mobile aren’t covered as they... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
John Wiley & Sons, 2008, [Equity Investing] Grade 3
To some, activists are a flock of locusts destroying all what comes in their way. Others see them as champions of the rights of owners and slayers of corporate waste and inefficiency. In 2000 Financial journalist Ronald Orol got assigned to the task of scanning the... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
John Wiley & Sons, 2005, [Equity Investing] Grade 3
No matter how much you research the stocks you invest in there are always some that know the companies even better: the management. Imagine if you could employ them part time to work for you. In a way you can. George Muzea has spent the main part of his 40-year career in the... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
Random House, 2012, [Surrounding Knowledge] Grade 5
“Who is the boss between you and mommy?”
“Who is the boss? You have to ask that? I’m the boss. Mommy is only the decision maker.”
Woody Allen excels at portraying funny, pathetic and often self-delusional characters. These lines from the film Mighty Aphrodite are a case in point... Further reading... Link to Amazon...
