The Outsiders

No, not those Outsiders.

25. The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William N. Thorndike

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


If you want to run your own business, be a CEO, or get some ideas of what you should look for in CEOs of companies you want to invest in, you should read this book.

The eight CEOs Thorndike profiles all excelled in capital allocation, i.e., they knew what to do with the money their companies had.

Sounds simple enough, right? There's no simple template, however, as different circumstances yield different best moves.

He compares each CEO's returns to the results of his/her peers as well as the S&P 500 during their respective reigns. The CEOs all beat their peers by a wide margin and trounced the S&P 500.

Those are great skills to have and understand. This book will give you a leg up.

Oddly enough, 3 or 4 of the Outsider CEOs started as electrical engineers like my Dad did. "What gives?" I teased him, later followed by, "Why didn't you buy (and hold!) Berkshire Hathaway in 1965?"

"I know," he said with a shake of his head, but he hadn't heard of the company back then. Hindsight's grand.

So is foresight, if you can get it right.


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