Interview
Interesting, short interview with Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush. A reminder of the sometimes almost insurmountable barriers of inefficient habits and practices in some sectors. The potential for IT-based revolutions in healthcare is huge, however the questions of “when” and “how” are still hard to answer. Yet keeping track of the “cost control/ accountability” trend in HC is vital.
Roger Lowenstein (author of “When Genius Failed”) wrote a very favorable review of Sylvia Nasar’s “Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius” book. Now Booz & Co’s Strategy & Business magazine has published a “Thought Leader” interview with her, 10 pages strong. Sylvia Nasar is famous for her book on John Nash, “A Beautiful Mind” (yes, the one made into a blockbuster movie). We haven’t read the book yet and suspect both “heroes” in general (interestingly, each reviewer had a list of ‘heroes’ missing from the book!) and the ascribing of too much importance to Economics – and risk it looking like a “hard” science. We respect it and it belongs to our mental models/ toolkits, but we prefer to seek the high quality companies and business models, with great and aligned managers and controlling shareholders, trading at a price that allows for significant margin of safety.
Mr. Van Den Berg of Century Management has just given an interview to GuruFocus.com, an interesting source keeping track of big-name investors. We took the opportunity to link to several articles and interviews, but it’s nice to note that Century’s own website is filled with good material in their Library page.
The London Business School’s Business Strategy Review (BSR) magazine/ website has a “World Business Leaders Series” worth spending some time on. We comment on a video with the Chairman of the London Stock Exchange and we highlight sections that, although intended for business in general, can also be framed for the specifics of investment management.
Update (April 6th, 2010): Please see inside for Mike Burry’s op-ed in the New York Times ranting on the Fed. On tour to promote his book “The Big Short”, Michael Lewis interviews have been popping up all over the Internet. Required reading is the excerpt from the book at Vanity Fair. We especially liked this bit: “I hated discussing ideas with investors,” (Mike Burry said), “because I then become a Defender of the Idea, and that influences your thought process. Once you became an idea’s defender, you had a harder time changing your mind about it.”
Sometimes we’ll publish “older” stuff as part of what we like to call “weekend catch-up reading”. This time it’s a Fortune Magazine interview with Joel I. Klen, New York City’s school chancellor and former CEO of Bertelsmann’s USA operations. He’s best know as the Dept. of Justice’s anti-trust czar that sued Microsoft, so it’s telling [...]
This BBC special on Buffett has good and bad moments, but the Don Graham interview is a must-see. This is a man who has been around Buffett for decades. His description of how (and why) Berkshire is so different from the “average American business” is one of the best compliments Mr. Buffett could get. Not a bad goal at all for any business owner or manager.
