Ideas

Our approach is characterized by continuous learning and hard work. Herein are a handful of AddressesAudio/Video PresentationsArticlesBooks and White Papers that we found thought provoking.
Modern Sardine Management

Modern Sardine Management

The current oversupply of real estate is different from past cyclical excesses. The present situation is a result of commoditization of real estate. Real estate investment rather than… Read More

Hubert Joly and Best Buy

Hubert Joly and Best Buy

When I joined Best Buy BBY -0.25% on September 4, 2012, the mood was grim. The previous CEO had been fired, embroiled in a scandal, and the share price was plummeting… Read More

Dave Packard to Hewlett Packard Managers

Dave Packard to Hewlett Packard Managers

I’m glad to have this opportunity to get together with you and discuss how each of us can do our job more efficiently because as the company grows l think this is going to be crucial in determining whether we are able to continue to grow and keep… Read More

Rudyard Kipling:  If-

Rudyard Kipling: If-

If you can keep your head when all about you, are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too; if you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, or being hated, don’t give way to hating… Read More

John Gardner:  The Road to Self Renewal

John Gardner: The Road to Self Renewal

This is a speech by John Gardner delivered in 1990 to McKinsey & Company: I’m going to talk about “Self-Renewal.” One of your most fundamental tasks is the renewal of the organizations you serve, and that usually includes persuading the top officers to accomplish a certain amount of self-renewal… Read More

Mark Andreessen:  It’s Time to Build

Mark Andreessen: It’s Time to Build

Written by Marc Andreessen Every Western institution was unprepared for the coronavirus pandemic, despite many prior warnings. This monumental failure of institutional effectiveness will reverberate for the rest of the decade, but it’s not too early to ask why, and what we need to do about it. Many of us would like to pin the … Read More

Maya Angelou:  When Great Trees Fall

Maya Angelou: When Great Trees Fall

Written by Maya Angelou When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety. When great trees fall in forests, small things recoil into silence, their senses eroded beyond fear. When great souls die, the air around us becomes light, rare, sterile. We breathe, … Read More

The University of Georgia’s Corsair Society

The University of Georgia’s Corsair Society

Written by Lori Johnston (ABJ ’95 UGA) and Jeremy Bales (AB, ABJ ’01 UGA) and published in the December 2014 issue of GEORGIA MAGAZINE The Statue of Liberty looms in the distance through the floor-to-ceiling windows on the 27th floor of Citi’s Greenwich Street…Read More

Jim Grant:  Perspective on US Fiscal Position

Jim Grant: Perspective on US Fiscal Position

America’s deteriorating public credit is the cold-button issue of the 2018 midterms. With rare bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans compete to pretend that the country isn’t going broke. In 1992, the third-party presidential candidate… Read More

Lewis Grizzard:  Great moments in a would-be father’s life

Lewis Grizzard: Great moments in a would-be father’s life

To my son, if I ever have one: Kid, I am writing this on Sept. 3, 1984. I have just returned from Athens, where I spent Saturday watching the University of Georgia, your old dad’s alma mater, play football against Clemson. While the events of the day were still fresh on my mind, I wanted … Read More

Howard Marks:  Memos

Howard Marks: Memos

Since 1990, Oaktree Capital’s Howard Marks has been routinely publishing memos to memorialize lessons he has learned, insights he has had, and effects of current events on the markets. His memos provide unique clarity into the world around us… Read More

Remembering a Hero:  Welles Crowther

Remembering a Hero: Welles Crowther

Written by Peggy Noonan What do I think about when I think about that day? The firemen who climbed “the stairway to Heaven” with 50, 60 pounds of gear. The people who called from Windows on the World and said: “I just want you to know I love you.” The men on the plane who … Read More

Leo Tolstoy on Abraham Lincoln

Leo Tolstoy on Abraham Lincoln

TOLSTOI HOLDS LINCOLN WORLD’S GREATEST HERO. Bigger Than His Country. Bigger Than All the Presidents Together: a Christ in Miniature. STILL TOO NEAR TO APPRECIATE HIS POWER. Great Russian Tells…Read More

Madhav Dhar’s Eulogy to Barton Biggs

Madhav Dhar’s Eulogy to Barton Biggs

September 7, 2012 Barton (1932 – 2012) I walked with him. I talked with him. I golfed with him—played squash, tennis, lifted weights with him—climbed mountains with him. I travelled the world with him—I helped create new investment worlds with… Read More