Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors

[yadayada]

[amazonsearch]Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors[/amazonsearch]

 

Highly recommended, he analyzes moats in detail.

 

Im only 10% so far, but one of the things I picked up that is that you need to think in combinations. For example Large capital requirements can be a serious barrier to entry depending on the industry. I think you can relate this to the leasing industry, where if you throw large amounts of money at it you might cause oversupply or you will compete on price and ruin margins for everyone. This raises financing costs, and that is exactly one of the moats you can have as a large scale leaser, low financing costs. So that is why some leasing industry's have only a few players and don't really see new entrants.

 

Or investing into intangible assets or tangible assets you cannot sell if the whole thing turns out to be a failure. Especially if the potential pay off won't be as high due to oversupply or heavy price competition.

 

Book goes much farther then just explaining how for example  scale is an advantage. But also discusses when it is a disadvantage and in what situations it works best etc.

 

There is also a section in the book where he gives instructions and tips on how to analyze industries. I haven't got to that part yet. But I think every  investor needs to read this book.

 

And then there is also this one

http://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Advantage-Creating-Sustaining-Performance-ebook/dp/B001CB34KY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398455812&sr=8-1&keywords=porter+competitive+advantage

 

Anyone read  this one?

[jschembs]

You could read those two books, some Peter Drucker, the McKinsey valuation book, and a good accounting book and you don't need an MBA.

[yadayada]

You could read those two books, some Peter Drucker, the McKinsey valuation book, and a good accounting book and you don't need an MBA.

yeah no need to learn all that beta volatility bull shit.

 

The problem i had (and still have) is that i see some businesses minting money year after year with pretty good ROIC. And then I think about them and look at competition and it just doesn't make sense. Bcause their moat shouldnt really be strong. I guess reading this book would help understanding that better.