What companies have the best management teams?

[sleepydragon]

BYD - Wang Chuan Fu

 

[berkshire101]

Why is Jamie Dimon a banking god?

 

He's a billionaire now.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-03/jamie-dimon-becomes-billionaire-ushering-in-era-of-the-megabank-iagiwwl8

[rpadebet]

Why is Jamie Dimon a banking god?

 

He's a billionaire now.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-03/jamie-dimon-becomes-billionaire-ushering-in-era-of-the-megabank-iagiwwl8

The best management "team" in banking is Goldman Sachs. Their top performing culture has endured through multiple management teams. JPM on the other hand is the house of dimon.

 

I agree Jamie dimon is the banking god ... The guy helps build Citigroup from scratch, gets thrown out when he is at his peak,  starts again and ends up leading jpm and navigates the biggest crisis of our generation without losing money in any quarter,buying competitors and saving the system to some extent . To just think what would have happened if he took up the Goldman Sachs job instead of joining Sandy weil in building citi is mind boggling.

 

[rkbabang]

TSLA, NFLX, CMG  The stocks are not priced reasonably, but one of the reasons for that is that the management have done amazing things building these companies from the ground up. AMZN belongs on this list as well, but it has already been mentioned.

 

 

[loganc]

Not a shareholder of CSU (unfortunately), but Leonard is incredible.

 

So, why aren't you a shareholder of CSU? Too expensive right now?

 

Thank you,

 

Gio

 

Gio,

 

I have not made an investment because I have not done significant work on this company.  I think Leonard's track record is incredible and what I gain from listening to the Constellation calls justifies my statement.  However, I will not make an investment on that basis alone.  I try to take the "punch card" notion pretty seriously in my investment process.

[Edward]

Admiral Group plc (ADM) - a london auto insurer with results better than GEICO. They're probably the best in the world at this. Henry Engelhardt (retires in a year) and David Stevens.

 

I second Strayer Education (STRA).

 

Renault SA (RNO) have the best CEO imo in the auto industry, Carlos Ghosn.

 

H&T Group plc (HAT) John Nichols is a good CEO, hes made a management buyout about 10 years ago.

 

Tropicana Entertainment Inc. (TPCA), a Carl Icahn company with very nice tax carryforwards and a few nice assets he got on the cheap.

 

PRA Group, Inc (PRAA), Steve Fredrikson and Kevin Stevenson. Best in class unsecured debt buyer - they buy credit card debt for 3-4 cents on the dollar, then collect over the years.

[netnet]

CSU.to - CEO gets no salary, no bonus, no options, AND he pays his own travel expenses

 

QSR Heinz, BUD - anything 3G buys is well run

 

+1. 

 

Not a shareholder of CSU (unfortunately), but Leonard is incredible.  QSR/BKW performance blows my mind.

 

I'll go ahead and make the obvious, while controversial, nomination:

 

VRX - Pearson. 

 

Flame away.

 

Just skimmed through a few years of annual letters. Wow, WOW, WOW

 

This guy is the real deal.  Shockingly good.  I have some experience in software and am not easily impressed.  He is impressive. (I'm sorry that I did not know about him 10 years ago and that he is looking to reduce his involvement in the company.

[Guest Schwab711]

CSU.to - CEO gets no salary, no bonus, no options, AND he pays his own travel expenses

 

QSR Heinz, BUD - anything 3G buys is well run

 

+1. 

 

Not a shareholder of CSU (unfortunately), but Leonard is incredible.  QSR/BKW performance blows my mind.

 

I'll go ahead and make the obvious, while controversial, nomination:

 

VRX - Pearson. 

 

Flame away.

 

Just skimmed through a few years of annual letters. Wow, WOW, WOW

 

This guy is the real deal.  Shockingly good.  I have some experience in software and am not easily impressed.  He is impressive. (I'm sorry that I did not know about him 10 years ago and that he is looking to reduce his involvement in the company.

 

I had exactly the same opinion. This is how to run a company.

[Jurgis]

CSU.to - CEO gets no salary, no bonus, no options, AND he pays his own travel expenses

 

+1.

 

Not a shareholder of CSU (unfortunately), but Leonard is incredible.

Just skimmed through a few years of annual letters. Wow, WOW, WOW

 

This guy is the real deal.  Shockingly good.  I have some experience in software and am not easily impressed.  He is impressive. (I'm sorry that I did not know about him 10 years ago and that he is looking to reduce his involvement in the company.

 

I had exactly the same opinion. This is how to run a company.

 

OK, so I'm gonna invert and prod people a bit: how come almost nobody from CoBF knew this company and/or invested a significant amount of money into it?

 

If this is the best thing since the second coming of Buffett  :D , how come this was mentioned only when it got to 10B market cap? If we missed this one, what other great small companies are we missing right now? What should we do to discover next CSU.to on time and not 10 years (or 2 years - that cost 4x return) too late?

 

Thoughts?

[bobozou]

What should we do to discover next CSU.to on time and not 10 years (or 2 years - that cost 4x return) too late?

 

Good question... this thread seems to agree that Mark Leonard's talents appear to clearly jump off the page after reading through the annual letters and CSU's performance speaks for itself (even excluding the parabolic path of the last 12 months)

 

There could be more to it, but I'd suggest...

 

1) read alot of annuals to find the needle in the haystack

2) look at whether longterm financial performance truly reflects the quality of the penmanship

 

I'm somewhat skeptical that quantitative screeners would have helped me find this gem (though one could argue for reversing the order of my suggestions, and starting with some type of quantitative screen for extremely well performing equities, and THEN using 'reading' as the 2nd stage filter)

[ourkid8]

CEO of CP Rail - Hunter Harrison.    He turned around CN Rail to become the most efficient Class I railroads and was later poached by Bill Ackman to run CP Rail and he is doing it again.  (As a CN Rail shareholder I was pissed but he is an icon in the business)

 

Thanks,

S

[gfp]

Not sure poached is the right word.  Wasn't he retired for two years before being approached by Ackman to run CP?

 

CEO of CP Rail - Hunter Harrison.    He turned around CN Rail to become the most efficient Class I railroads and was later poached by Bill Ackman to run CP Rail and he is doing it again.  (As a CN Rail shareholder I was pissed but he is an icon in the business)

 

Thanks,

S

[ourkid8]

He was still under contract (receiving a pension etc...) that he would not work at a competitor which all CEO's at or above retirement age typically sign.  Once he became CEO of CP Rail, he then poached Mr. Creel who is a SUPERB operator to turn around the operations. (Mr. Creel also went on a poaching spree until they made an agreement for a term not to approach each other's employees)

 

Tks,

S

 

Not sure poached is the right word.  Wasn't he retired for two years before being approached by Ackman to run CP?

 

CEO of CP Rail - Hunter Harrison.    He turned around CN Rail to become the most efficient Class I railroads and was later poached by Bill Ackman to run CP Rail and he is doing it again.  (As a CN Rail shareholder I was pissed but he is an icon in the business)

 

Thanks,

S

[KCLarkin]

OK, so I'm gonna invert and prod people a bit: how come almost nobody from CoBF knew this company and/or invested a significant amount of money into it?

 

If this is the best thing since the second coming of Buffett  :D , how come this was mentioned only when it got to 10B market cap? If we missed this one, what other great small companies are we missing right now? What should we do to discover next CSU.to on time and not 10 years (or 2 years - that cost 4x return) too late?

 

I first bought this in April 2013 at $135 CAD. Sadly, I did not make it a big position at that time even though I felt it was the best company in Canada. I didn't know how to do a proper valuation on M&A driven firms.

 

I found it by looking at Mawer New Canada's holdings. Mawer has excellent portfolio managers but they don't provide a lot of commentary on their holdings. Later, I found that a portfolio manager named Jason Donville was mentioned in nearly every article about CSU. Donville is very generous about sharing his thoughts in his quarterly letters and on BNN. His writings provided me with a good way to think about M&A driven firms:

http://www.donvillekent.com/roe-reporter.php

 

AFAIK, he first mentioned CSU in 2009.

 

 

[netnet]

OK, so I'm gonna invert and prod people a bit: how come almost nobody from CoBF knew this company and/or invested a significant amount of money into it?

 

If this is the best thing since the second coming of Buffett  :D , how come this was mentioned only when it got to 10B market cap? If we missed this one, what other great small companies are we missing right now? What should we do to discover next CSU.to on time and not 10 years (or 2 years - that cost 4x return) too late?

 

Thoughts?

 

This a very, very good point.  This is a value board with significant Canadian membership. Why and how did people miss this?  and what else is out there?

[Liberty]

CSU.to - CEO gets no salary, no bonus, no options, AND he pays his own travel expenses

 

+1.

 

Not a shareholder of CSU (unfortunately), but Leonard is incredible.

Just skimmed through a few years of annual letters. Wow, WOW, WOW

 

This guy is the real deal.  Shockingly good.  I have some experience in software and am not easily impressed.  He is impressive. (I'm sorry that I did not know about him 10 years ago and that he is looking to reduce his involvement in the company.

 

I had exactly the same opinion. This is how to run a company.

 

OK, so I'm gonna invert and prod people a bit: how come almost nobody from CoBF knew this company and/or invested a significant amount of money into it?

 

If this is the best thing since the second coming of Buffett  :D , how come this was mentioned only when it got to 10B market cap? If we missed this one, what other great small companies are we missing right now? What should we do to discover next CSU.to on time and not 10 years (or 2 years - that cost 4x return) too late?

 

Thoughts?

 

I've been invested in CSU for a while and it's my second biggest position, I just don't discuss all my investments. My #1 position has also never been mentioned here and it's 20% of my portfolio. Maybe someday I'll post about it.

 

The problem with "discovering the next one early" is that when someone posts about it, people say it doesn't have the track record yet, and it's likely to look expensive anyway if it's growing very fast when small. Maybe the next one is already  posted on the investment forum in a thread with no or few replies, buried on page 18... That's how it works. By the time there's the track record to convince people, many will say that it's too late.

[netnet]

 

 

I've been invested in CSU for a while and it's my second biggest position, I just don't discuss all my investments. My #1 position has also never been mentioned here and it's 20% of my portfolio. Maybe someday I'll post about it. I have a history of getting into huge energy-and-time-sucking threads about my investments (see Apple, VRX, etc), so I sometimes am hesitant to add more irons to the fire for my own sanity.

 

The problem with "discovering the next one early" is that when someone posts about it, people say it doesn't have the track record yet, and it's likely to look expensive anyway if it's growing very fast when small. Maybe the next one is already  posted on the investment forum in a thread with no or few replies, buried on page 18... That's how it works. By the time there's the track record to convince people, many will say that it's too late.

 

Lib, you add way more value literally and figuratively when you put in your high conviction ideas and then let other people debate it.  Afterall this is not your investment committee! The objection and critiques can help clarify your own thinking, but you don't need to justify yourself.

 

I totally understand how the board can be a time and energy sink.  To combat this I either give myself a block of time to look and/or post or limit to scanning just the investment ideas at the end of the day. Or better yet, NO posting. (Simple rules work best for me.) Similarly, it seems Dazel, for example just stopped posting, particularly on Altius. 

 

All of which to say, what is your best idea?  Altius is mine.  KOOL could be my second best if and when they get their PIPE together or whatever funding is going to get them through their Phase III.

 

Best,

 

netnet

[LC]

My #1 position has also never been mentioned here and it's 20% of my portfolio. Maybe someday I'll post about it.

 

 

No better time than the present! (jk of course)  ;D

[Jurgis]

OK, so I'm gonna invert and prod people a bit: how come almost nobody from CoBF knew this company and/or invested a significant amount of money into it?

 

If this is the best thing since the second coming of Buffett  :D , how come this was mentioned only when it got to 10B market cap? If we missed this one, what other great small companies are we missing right now? What should we do to discover next CSU.to on time and not 10 years (or 2 years - that cost 4x return) too late?

 

I first bought this in April 2013 at $135 CAD. Sadly, I did not make it a big position at that time even though I felt it was the best company in Canada. I didn't know how to do a proper valuation on M&A driven firms.

 

I found it by looking at Mawer New Canada's holdings. Mawer has excellent portfolio managers but they don't provide a lot of commentary on their holdings. Later, I found that a portfolio manager named Jason Donville was mentioned in nearly every article about CSU. Donville is very generous about sharing his thoughts in his quarterly letters and on BNN. His writings provided me with a good way to think about M&A driven firms:

http://www.donvillekent.com/roe-reporter.php

 

AFAIK, he first mentioned CSU in 2009.

 

Thanks KCLarkin, I'll take a look at Mawer New Canada and Jason Donville. :)

[Jurgis]

 

OK, so I'm gonna invert and prod people a bit: how come almost nobody from CoBF knew this company and/or invested a significant amount of money into it?

 

If this is the best thing since the second coming of Buffett  :D , how come this was mentioned only when it got to 10B market cap? If we missed this one, what other great small companies are we missing right now? What should we do to discover next CSU.to on time and not 10 years (or 2 years - that cost 4x return) too late?

 

Thoughts?

 

I've been invested in CSU for a while and it's my second biggest position, I just don't discuss all my investments. My #1 position has also never been mentioned here and it's 20% of my portfolio. Maybe someday I'll post about it.

 

The problem with "discovering the next one early" is that when someone posts about it, people say it doesn't have the track record yet, and it's likely to look expensive anyway if it's growing very fast when small. Maybe the next one is already  posted on the investment forum in a thread with no or few replies, buried on page 18... That's how it works. By the time there's the track record to convince people, many will say that it's too late.

 

First of all congrats that you have discovered CSU early.

 

You can still post how/why you discovered it. Might be useful.

 

Regarding the second part of your message: yes, I think you might be right. There might be a company posted in 18 pages that will do as well as CSU and people will wonder how they missed it. There are definitely some candidates. :) And you are right that it's tough to have conviction to put a large part of your portfolio in such smaller "unproven" ideas.

 

Not to put CSU enthusiasts on the spot, but there is also a success-bias: people like the company/stock/management partially because the return has been so phenomenal. I believe them when they say they like the CEO and his letters, but I wonder if they were so enthusiastic if the stock was languishing... ;) (As aside, I wonder if Biglari or Moynihan would be evaluated much better if their stocks were going up a lot ;) - though of course the stocks going up is somewhat tied to their performance ).

 

Thanks

[KCLarkin]

OK, so I'm gonna invert and prod people a bit: how come almost nobody from CoBF knew this company and/or invested a significant amount of money into it?

 

If this is the best thing since the second coming of Buffett  :D , how come this was mentioned only when it got to 10B market cap? If we missed this one, what other great small companies are we missing right now? What should we do to discover next CSU.to on time and not 10 years (or 2 years - that cost 4x return) too late?

 

Thoughts?

 

Someone should look at Stella-Jones. I haven't done any work on it but it has 30% annual return over the last 20 years. $10k becomes $1,268,714.32. It has a $3B CDN market cap and I never hear it mentioned anywhere.

[netnet]

 

 

Not to put CSU enthusiasts on the spot, but there is also a success-bias: people like the company/stock/management partially because the return has been so phenomenal. I believe them when they say they like the CEO and his letters, but I wonder if they were so enthusiastic if the stock was languishing... ;) (As aside, I wonder if Biglari or Moynihan would be evaluated much better if their stocks were going up a lot ;) - though of course the stocks going up is somewhat tied to their performance ).

 

Thanks

 

 

Not to put CSU enthusiasts on the spot, but there is also a success-bias: people like the company/stock/management partially because the return has been so phenomenal. I believe them when they say they like the CEO and his letters, but I wonder if they were so enthusiastic if the stock was languishing... ;) (As aside, I wonder if Biglari or Moynihan would be evaluated much better if their stocks were going up a lot ;) - though of course the stocks going up is somewhat tied to their performance ).

 

Thanks

 

First of all you have to go with a company where the objective indicators of success, i.e. not the stock price are pointing in the right direction.  Following Munger's suggestion, I look at those first without looking at the quoted price.  Those numbers speak for themselves regardless of the quote. (I don't think either Biglari and Moynihan have put up similar numbers.)

 

Second, his letters are fantastic.

 

Third, regarding the numbers, he set the bulls eye in 2006 and hewed to those targets; he does not paint a bulls eye around where the arrow hits. (Biglari anyone)

 

Four, his compensation is meagerly and Buffett like. (Biglari and Moynihan fail here, big time.)

 

As I said before, he is the real deal, even if the market had valued the company at 1/10 of its current price. In fact I wish the market did value the company at 1/10.  The current price is way too rich for me :-\

[berkshire101]

OK, so I'm gonna invert and prod people a bit: how come almost nobody from CoBF knew this company and/or invested a significant amount of money into it?

 

If this is the best thing since the second coming of Buffett  :D , how come this was mentioned only when it got to 10B market cap? If we missed this one, what other great small companies are we missing right now? What should we do to discover next CSU.to on time and not 10 years (or 2 years - that cost 4x return) too late?

 

Thoughts?

 

Someone should look at Stella-Jones. I haven't done any work on it but it has 30% annual return over the last 20 years. $10k becomes $1,268,714.32. It has a $3B CDN market cap and I never hear it mentioned anywhere.

 

I will be looking at them!  Thanks! :)

[gary17]

I think one of the reasons CSU was not discussed because it doesn't fall into the traditional graham like business. 

[Jurgis]

I think one of the reasons CSU was not discussed because it doesn't fall into the traditional graham like business.

 

But this board is not about Graham-like businesses. ;) It's about Buffett-like businesses and this definitely qualifies. It has had ROE over 15% since 2008. Great results like netnet says.

 

My partial excuse of not seeing this earlier is that it's Canadian. Before coming to this board, I missed the Northern Exposure.  8)

 

Edit: Actually after some digging I found that I have looked at CSU in 2012. I did not have any context on it though and I did not spend more than 20 minutes on it from what I see. Doh. :(