Companies or managers that were unappreciated?

[schin]

“When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.” - Warren Buffett

 

I strongly agree with Warren Buffett on certain industries having bad economics. It's almost like having great players on bad teams. Or subpar teams. Like Dan Mario never winning a championship because he never had a complete team. Or conversely, Robert Horry having 7 rings while HOFers or Dream Teamers like Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, or Clyde Drexler having zero.

 

That said, are there high performing CEO/managers that are under appreciated or unknown because they were fighting an uphill battle.

Conversely, are there companies such as General Magic or Webvan or Pets.com or Cetera Genomics that were before their time? Right concept, wrong time?

 

If so, I would love to read any books or watch any movies on them. Or do general research.

 

In terms of managers, I think Sergio Marchionne is an under-appreciated manager that took Fiat that was in a poor industry/economics and made more returns that it should have deserved.

[schin]

I will reply to my own topic... He's a newer CEO... but, David Velez of Nubank was touted by Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital as the best CEO he ever worked with.. I mean.. this is coming from Sequoia -- who invested in Apple, Cisco, Nvidia, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Paypal, Zoom, WhatsApp.

 

That's a ballsy statement.

[ValueArb]

Sequoia Capital isn't Sequoia Capital anymore. Their entire process was revealed to be a joke by Sam Bankman Fried. Not only was he playing League of Legends while they interviewed him, but when replying to the question of what his vision for FTX was he replied  ""You can buy bitcoin, You can send money in whatever currency to any friend anywhere in the world. You can buy a banana. You can do anything you want with your money from inside FTX." the partners all applauded him instead of saying, does this even make sense? And gave him $250M.

 

Alfred Lin went on twitter after SBF's conviction to say they did their due diligence but Sam lied to them, and is rightly getting crushed for it. They did no real due diligence when they didn't realize they were giving $250M to a business run on Quickbooks. Let alone not uncovering his history of lies about FTX, Alameda and his trading history.

[longlake95]

TFII

 

Bedard is the Singleton of trucking.

[Parsad]

Greg Popovich...arguably the greatest coach in sports history.  A leader builds leaders. 

 

Look at who has come out of San Antonio as a player, assistant, GM or coach...rings, rings, rings...wins, wins, wins...class all the way.  No egos, no assholes...just winners. 

 

Cheers!

[Spekulatius]

2 hours ago, longlake95 said:

TFII

 

Bedard is the Singleton of trucking.

@longlake95 Looks like an impressive track record. Put this one on my watch list.

 

I know you posted about TFII before but now you finally got at least my attention.

 

 

[longlake95]

I'm away at a hockey tournament. I post something about the recent Q next week. 

 

Bedard provides a masterclass, in plain  English, on trucking and business and capital allocation regularly on the calls. 

Edited November 3, 2023 by longlake95

[Spekulatius]

The Sands Gang (Rob Sands) at Constellation brands is very underrated and you rarely hear or read anything about them. They have done very well for shareholders and themselves.

[schin]

On 11/3/2023 at 3:45 PM, Parsad said:

Greg Popovich...arguably the greatest coach in sports history.  A leader builds leaders. 

 

Look at who has come out of San Antonio as a player, assistant, GM or coach...rings, rings, rings...wins, wins, wins...class all the way.  No egos, no assholes...just winners. 

 

Cheers!

 

It's interesting how the Bill Belichick lineage has been a disaster. 

[Parsad]

On 11/4/2023 at 9:19 PM, schin said:

 

It's interesting how the Bill Belichick lineage has been a disaster. 

 

Good article that covers this:

 

https://www.dazn.com/en-CA/news/football/how-every-former-bill-belichick-assistant-has-fared-as-an-nfl-head-coach/jdt5dwqxx67j1e0yyra59zzy6

 

It's like how Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky were never a good coach or GM.  Sometimes the great ones can't teach what is often unteachable...natural instincts, drive and skill.  Also helps if Tom Brady is your quarterback for 20 years! 

 

Popovich teaches accountability, responsibility and humility...the drive, instincts and skill are already in his players/assistants...he just brings them out the right way.  Cheers!