Tag Archives: Investing

Lessons on Competition from Mother Nature

Posted on May 30, 2017 by John Hunter

An interesting short article by Joel Barker with some ideas to think about, Surviving the Fittest: New Lessons on Competition from Mother Nature As a result of this emerging body of research, we now must reexamine our competitive paradigm and factor in the new information. It is now clear that ‘the fittest’ not only don’t win all the time, but are only a piece of the more complex system. This information can lead to new strategies for small companies and … Continue reading →

Posted in Competition, Systems thinking | Tagged complexity, interactions, Investing, risk, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

Some Thoughts on Investing from My Recent Interview

Posted on February 12, 2015 by John Hunter

In the first few years of this blog I posted occasionally, but still much more than the last few years, on investing and economics. Now I mainly post on those topics on the Curious Cat Investing and Economics blog (see how the name and that practice are in sync with each other?). I was recently interviewed about investing strategies and thoughts and decided to share that with the readers of this blog. Some excerpts from the interview: I have maintained … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Investing | Tagged Apple, Google, Health care, Investing, John Hunter

The Importance of Leadership by Those Working to Improve Management

Posted on November 25, 2014 by John Hunter

This month Bill Troy, ASQ CEO, asked ASQ Influential Voices bloggers to explore the importance of leadership for every quality management professional. Leadership is important but also something that often is difficult to understand what exactly is meant by the person using the term. In Bill’s case he provides some guidance with: “Leadership encompasses… business savvy, people skills, and decisive action all are required to get results in the world.” The ability to find solutions and move forward efforts in … Continue reading →

Posted in Management | Tagged ASQ Influential Voices, business, Investing, leadership, quality | 1 Comment

More Evidence of the Damage Done by Kleptocrat CEO Pay

Posted on April 21, 2014 by John Hunter

I have been writing about the problems of overpaid executives that has lately become so bad that “overpaid executives” doesn’t capture the nature of the problem. Today I see many CEO’s are acting as kleptocrats do – taking food out of others mouths to build their castles. The damage done to everyone else involved is of no concern. Both groups love bankers that flood them with cash for new and larger castles at the expense of the futures of their … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged business, executive pay, hiring, Investing, management research, overpaid executives, stakeholders, stockholders | 2 Comments

Kleptocrat CEOs and Their Apologists

Posted on March 10, 2014 by John Hunter

I am disgusted by the lack of ethical and moral fiber of many CEOs of the largest corporations (along with their cronies and apologists) in the USA. This lack comes out in many ways (see all the scandals at the too-big-to-fail banks etc.) but the problem I am upset about now is the increasingly commonplace kleptocrat behavior. CEOs, and their cronies, were well paid decades ago. As their greed about their pay got to be unethical Peter Drucker started to … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Investing, Psychology | Tagged business, commentary, ethics, executive pay, Investing, overpaid executives, respect for people | 2 Comments

The Market Discounts Proven Company Leadership Far Too Quickly

Posted on January 28, 2013 by John Hunter

Developing a strong executive leadership culture is not a short term effort. It isn’t based on one person. It almost never deteriorates quickly. Yet markets continually overact to minor blips on the long term success of companies. I think this is mainly due to a failure to appreciate systems and a failure to appreciate variation along with plenty of other contributing factors. The market’s weakness does provide investment opportunities. Though taking advantages of them is much more difficult than spotting … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Investing | Tagged business, commentary, Investing, leadership, stockholders, Toyota | 1 Comment

Long Term Thinking with Respect for People

Posted on May 9, 2012 by John Hunter

Toyota nearly went bankrupt near 1950 and had to lay off a third of their employees. A huge focus of the Toyota Production System as envisioned by Taiichi Ohno was to secure the long term success of the company. The priority of doing so is easier to see when you respect people and are in danger of witnessing the destruction of their careers. I can’t find the quote (maybe Jon Miller, or someone else, can provide one), but I recall … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Lean thinking, Management, Respect, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged commentary, curiouscat, Deming, Economics, Investing, leadership, lean management, long term thinking, respect for people, Taiichi Ohno, Toyota, Toyota Production System (TPS) | 6 Comments

Massively Unjust Executive Compensation Damages Companies and Investments

Posted on March 13, 2012 by John Hunter

For years I have believed the massively unjust executive compensation packages have been doing great harm to American businesses. As an investor, one of the big risks that has to be evaluated is how much of the business profits executives will divert to their personal bank accounts. And investors also have to worry about the risks executives take to reach huge incentives which then greatly damage your investment. In 2007, I added two of my own deadly diseases to Dr. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Management, Respect | Tagged bonus, Deming, ethics, executive pay, incentives, Investing, motivation, overpaid executives, respect for people | 4 Comments

When Companies Can Treat You Like an ATM, Many Will Do So

Posted on August 29, 2011 by John Hunter

The End of Refrigeration One small custom chip, some relays, a transformer, a couple of heat sinks, and a bunch of passive parts. Maybe a build cost of $20-30 or so? But GE’s price to me was $250, plus $150 for the 20 minutes it took to pull out the old one and swap in the new one. Paying $400 for a big piece of physical gear plus a couple hours of labor didn’t bother me. Paying $400 for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Deming, Investing, Lean thinking, Management, Process improvement, Systems thinking | Tagged Customer focus, customer service, Deming, Investing, Lean thinking, Systems thinking | 1 Comment

6 New Kiva Loans to Manufacturing Entrepreneurs

Posted on July 28, 2011 by John Hunter

I have been a big fan of Kiva for quite some time, and have written about it previously: Kiva – Giving Entrepreneurs an Opportunity to Succeed, Thanksgiving: Micro-financing Entrepreneurs. I made 6 new loans today to manufacturing entrepreneurs in the USA (and Mexico); Tajikistan; Nicaragua; Armenia; and 2 in El Salvador. The webcast above shows Armen Tsaghikyan in Armenia. It does seem like his process maybe could use a benefit from a bit of application of lean manufacturing ideas. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Manufacturing | Tagged entrepreneur, Investing, Manufacturing, respect for people

Sometimes Micro-managing Works

Posted on April 27, 2011 by John Hunter

Sometimes micro-managing works. That doesn’t mean it is a good strategy to replicate. If you benchmark Apple you might decide that you should have a tyrannical obsessive involved CEO who is directly involved in every detail of products and services. After all Apple is now the second most valuable company in the world with a market capitalization of $324 billion (Exxon Mobil is the top at $433 billion) and a huge part of that is Steve Jobs. Nice quote from … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Innovation, Management | Tagged Apple, Creativity, Customer focus, Investing, leadership, management, stockholders | 5 Comments

Warren Buffett’s 2010 Letter to Shareholders

Posted on March 3, 2011 by John Hunter

Warren Buffett has published his always excellent annual shareholder letter. His letters, provide excellent investing insight and good management ideas. Yearly figures, it should be noted, are neither to be ignored nor viewed as all-important. The pace of the earth’s movement around the sun is not synchronized with the time required for either investment ideas or operating decisions to bear fruit. At GEICO, for example, we enthusiastically spent $900 million last year on advertising to obtain policyholders who deliver us … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Investing, Management | Tagged evidence based management, Investing, management, Psychology, Systems thinking, Warren Buffett | 1 Comment

Six Sigma Interview with Jack Welch

Posted on October 4, 2010 by John Hunter

The short video includes some interesting points by Jack Welch on six sigma. GE was a huge company and did plenty of things that could be criticized. But often those criticizing take it much to far and disregard the sensible things GE understood and was doing well. Quotes by Jack Welch: “variation is evil” “Will six sigma companies get more valuation in the marketplace? Not unless they produce results. You can’t put up a slogan that says we are a … Continue reading →

Posted in Investing, Management, Six sigma, webcast | Tagged Investing, management, management webcast, quote, Six sigma

Kiva – Giving Entrepreneurs an Opportunity to Succeed

Posted on April 3, 2010 by John Hunter

I really like Kiva. Kiva lets you lend small amounts of money to entrepreneurs around the world. My latest loan is to a manufacturing entrepreneur in the USA. When Tony’s 6’0 6″ body could not fit in the traditional supercars, he built his own in 1990. Tony says, “If one door closes I just look for another opening; I don’t give up.” With much patience and hard work he continues to expand his business and hopes to make it a … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Fun, Investing, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged Creativity, curiouscat, Economics, ethics, Investing, John Hunter, respect for people | 2 Comments

Short Term Investing Focus

Posted on February 17, 2010 by John Hunter

Buffett’s New CEO Shows Analysts, Hedge-Fund Managers to Door [the broken link was removed] Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. completed the buyout yesterday after winning the approval of Burlington Northern investors. The deal, valued at $100 a share, allows Rose to hand out returns of nearly 300 percent, plus dividends, to investors who bought stock the day he was named CEO in 2000. The problem, he said, is that shareholders with that length of commitment are dwindling in number and influence. … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Investing, Management | Tagged Deming, Investing, long term thinking, management, short term thinking, Warren Buffett | 4 Comments

The CEO is Only One Person

Posted on December 14, 2009 by John Hunter

The CEO is important but they are only one person. Rarely do they determine the success of a company. The instances where they seem to are so rare as to almost seem like just random luck. I think they can make a difference, but that they make a significant difference rarely. Steve Jobs seems to have made a huge difference to Apple, for example (and Jeffery Bezos at Amazon – note both of these examples are also founders of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Systems thinking | Tagged executive pay, Investing, leadership, management, Systems thinking | 6 Comments