Bluegrass Capital

Bluegrass Capital

Student of business models. Player of infinite games. Lets build something together.

'

20+ Book Recommendations by Bluegrass Capital

  • Dear Shareholder

    Lawrence A. Cunningham

    The shareholder letters of corporate leaders are a rich source of business and investing wisdom. There is no more authoritative resource on subjects ranging from leadership and management to capital allocation and company culture. But with thousands of shareholder letters written every year, how can investors and students of the corporate world sift this vast swathe to unearth the best insights? Dear Shareholder is the solution! In this masterly new collection, Lawrence A. Cunningham, business expert and acclaimed editor of The Essays of Warren Buffett, presents the finest writers in the genre of the shareholder letter, and the most significant excerpts from their total output. Skillfully curated, edited and arranged, these letters showcase the ultimate in business and investment knowledge from an all-star team. Dear Shareholder holds letters by more than 20 different leaders from 16 companies. These leaders include Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Tom Gayner (Markel), Kay Graham and Don Graham (The Washington Post and Graham Holdings), Roberto Goizueta (Coca-Cola), Ginni Rometty (IBM), and Prem Watsa (Fairfax). Topics covered in these letters include the long-term focus, corporate culture and commitment to values, capital allocation, buybacks, dividends, acquisitions, management, business strategy, and executive compensation. As we survey the corporate landscape in search of outstanding companies run by first-rate managers, shareholder letters are a valuable resource. The letters also contain a wealth of knowledge on the core topics of effective business management. Let Dear Shareholder be your guide.

    @Wallfacer_LuoJi If not familiar w the companies and mgmt teams mentioned, it is incredible; if you are already very familiar w them, then its less useful; a great book for a young mgmt team to learn from

  • "Payments Systems in the U.S." is a comprehensive description of the systems (cards, checks, ACH, wires, and cash) that move money between and among consumers and enterprises in the U.S. In clear and lively writing, the authors explain how the systems work, who uses them, who provides them, who profits from them, and how they are changing.

    @nachkari https://t.co/nOXg37QneH

  • The author of the best-selling New Ideas from Dead Economists identifies life lessons that can be learned through the examples of such top CEOs as Ray Kroc, Estée Lauder, and Mary Kay Ash, in a guide that presents strategies for such business challenges as competition with China, labor shortages, and hedge funds.

    @jfc_3_ @jasonzweigwsj great profile in this book https://t.co/uCvVSaLUVl

  • The world’s foremost expert on pricing strategy shows how this mysterious process works and how to maximize value through pricing to company and customer. In all walks of life, we constantly make decisions about whether something is worth our money or our time, or try to convince others to part with their money or their time. Price is the place where value and money meet. From the global release of the latest electronic gadget to the bewildering gyrations of oil futures to markdowns at the bargain store, price is the most powerful and pervasive economic force in our day-to-day lives and one of the least understood. The recipe for successful pricing often sounds like an exotic cocktail, with equal parts psychology, economics, strategy, tools and incentives stirred up together, usually with just enough math to sour the taste. That leads managers to water down the drink with hunches and rules of thumb, or leave out the parts with which they don’t feel comfortable. While this makes for a sweeter drink, it often lacks the punch to have an impact on the customer or on the business. It doesn’t have to be that way, though, as Hermann Simon illustrates through dozens of stories collected over four decades in the trenches and behind the scenes. A world-renowned speaker on pricing and a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 executives, Simon’s lifelong journey has taken him from rural farmers’ markets, to a distinguished academic career, to a long second career as a n entrepreneur and management consultant to companies large and small throughout the world. Along the way, he has learned from Nobel Prize winners and leading management gurus, and helped countless managers and executives use pricing as a way to create new markets, grow their businesses and gain a sustained competitive advantage. He also learned some tough personal lessons about value, how people perceive it, and how people profit from it. In this engaging and practical narrative, Simon leaves nothing out of the pricing cocktail, but still makes it go down smoothly and leaves you wanting to learn more and do more—as a consumer or as a business person. You will never look at pricing the same way again.

    @Sammy_KGB @patrick_oshag https://t.co/iWao1L4XUE

  • @patrickgaldun @yourMTLbroker @GavinSBaker @MorrowBailey1 @LibertyRPF @MinionCapital @NonGaap @Alex_Danco this is better https://t.co/tW25VGUtNz

  • The Ethical Algorithm

    Michael Kearns

    Over the course of a generation, algorithms have gone from mathematical abstractions to powerful mediators of daily life. Algorithms have made our lives more efficient, more entertaining, and, sometimes, better informed. At the same time, complex algorithms are increasingly violating the basic rights of individual citizens. Allegedly anonymized datasets routinely leak our most sensitive personal information; statistical models for everything from mortgages to college admissions reflect racial and gender bias. Meanwhile, users manipulate algorithms to "game" search engines, spam filters, online reviewing services, and navigation apps. Understanding and improving the science behind the algorithms that run our lives is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing issues of this century. Traditional fixes, such as laws, regulations and watchdog groups, have proven woefully inadequate. Reporting from the cutting edge of scientific research, The Ethical Algorithm offers a new approach: a set of principled solutions based on the emerging and exciting science of socially aware algorithm design. Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth explain how we can better embed human principles into machine code - without halting the advance of data-driven scientific exploration. Weaving together innovative research with stories of citizens, scientists, and activists on the front lines, The Ethical Algorithm offers a compelling vision for a future, one in which we can better protect humans from the unintended impacts of algorithms while continuing to inspire wondrous advances in technology.

    6 books within reach and 6 tags https://t.co/tpjgazRG0a @GavinSBaker @MorrowBailey1 @LibertyRPF @MinionCapital @NonGaap @Alex_Danco https://t.co/iNy9ilwyNc

  • Never Lost Again

    Bill Kilday

    6 books within reach and 6 tags https://t.co/tpjgazRG0a @GavinSBaker @MorrowBailey1 @LibertyRPF @MinionCapital @NonGaap @Alex_Danco https://t.co/iNy9ilwyNc

  • High Output Management

    Andrew S. Grove

    The president of Silicon Valley's Intel Corporation sets forth the three basic ideas of his management philosophy and details numerous specific techniques to increase productivity in the manager's work and that of his colleagues and subordinates

    6 books within reach and 6 tags https://t.co/tpjgazRG0a @GavinSBaker @MorrowBailey1 @LibertyRPF @MinionCapital @NonGaap @Alex_Danco https://t.co/iNy9ilwyNc

  • Rockonomics

    Alan B. Krueger

    "Drawing on interviews with leading artists and band members as well as journeymen musicians, music executives, and managers, economist Alan Krueger takes readers backstage to show how the music industry works. Incorporating tabulations of the latest data on concert revenues, ticket prices, royalties, streaming, tour dates, and merchandise sales, Rockonomics reveals who makes money and how, and it chronicles the radical transformation of the economics of the music industry in recent decades."--Book jacket

    6 books within reach and 6 tags https://t.co/tpjgazRG0a @GavinSBaker @MorrowBailey1 @LibertyRPF @MinionCapital @NonGaap @Alex_Danco https://t.co/iNy9ilwyNc

  • The author of the best-selling New Ideas from Dead Economists identifies life lessons that can be learned through the examples of such top CEOs as Ray Kroc, Estée Lauder, and Mary Kay Ash, in a guide that presents strategies for such business challenges as competition with China, labor shortages, and hedge funds.

    6 books within reach and 6 tags https://t.co/tpjgazRG0a @GavinSBaker @MorrowBailey1 @LibertyRPF @MinionCapital @NonGaap @Alex_Danco https://t.co/iNy9ilwyNc

  • Dear Shareholder

    Lawrence A. Cunningham

    The shareholder letters of corporate leaders are a rich source of business and investing wisdom. There is no more authoritative resource on subjects ranging from leadership and management to capital allocation and company culture. But with thousands of shareholder letters written every year, how can investors and students of the corporate world sift this vast swathe to unearth the best insights? Dear Shareholder is the solution! In this masterly new collection, Lawrence A. Cunningham, business expert and acclaimed editor of The Essays of Warren Buffett, presents the finest writers in the genre of the shareholder letter, and the most significant excerpts from their total output. Skillfully curated, edited and arranged, these letters showcase the ultimate in business and investment knowledge from an all-star team. Dear Shareholder holds letters by more than 20 different leaders from 16 companies. These leaders include Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Tom Gayner (Markel), Kay Graham and Don Graham (The Washington Post and Graham Holdings), Roberto Goizueta (Coca-Cola), Ginni Rometty (IBM), and Prem Watsa (Fairfax). Topics covered in these letters include the long-term focus, corporate culture and commitment to values, capital allocation, buybacks, dividends, acquisitions, management, business strategy, and executive compensation. As we survey the corporate landscape in search of outstanding companies run by first-rate managers, shareholder letters are a valuable resource. The letters also contain a wealth of knowledge on the core topics of effective business management. Let Dear Shareholder be your guide.

    6 books within reach and 6 tags https://t.co/tpjgazRG0a @GavinSBaker @MorrowBailey1 @LibertyRPF @MinionCapital @NonGaap @Alex_Danco https://t.co/iNy9ilwyNc

  • The author of the best-selling New Ideas from Dead Economists identifies life lessons that can be learned through the examples of such top CEOs as Ray Kroc, Estée Lauder, and Mary Kay Ash, in a guide that presents strategies for such business challenges as competition with China, labor shortages, and hedge funds.

    5/5 taken from https://t.co/uCvVSaLUVl

  • Widely respected and admired, Philip Fisher is among the most influential investors of all time. His investment philosophies, introduced almost forty years ago, are not only studied and applied by today's financiers and investors, but are also regarded by many as gospel. This book is invaluable reading and has been since it was first published in 1958. The updated paperback retains the investment wisdom of the original edition and includes the perspectives of the author's son Ken Fisher, an investment guru in his own right in an expanded preface and introduction "I sought out Phil Fisher after reading his Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits...A thorough understanding of the business, obtained by using Phil's techniques...enables one to make intelligent investment commitments." —Warren Buffet

    @_adityarajan the best book on investing ever written: Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Phil Fisher @PalmettoCapital

  • The world’s foremost expert on pricing strategy shows how this mysterious process works and how to maximize value through pricing to company and customer. In all walks of life, we constantly make decisions about whether something is worth our money or our time, or try to convince others to part with their money or their time. Price is the place where value and money meet. From the global release of the latest electronic gadget to the bewildering gyrations of oil futures to markdowns at the bargain store, price is the most powerful and pervasive economic force in our day-to-day lives and one of the least understood. The recipe for successful pricing often sounds like an exotic cocktail, with equal parts psychology, economics, strategy, tools and incentives stirred up together, usually with just enough math to sour the taste. That leads managers to water down the drink with hunches and rules of thumb, or leave out the parts with which they don’t feel comfortable. While this makes for a sweeter drink, it often lacks the punch to have an impact on the customer or on the business. It doesn’t have to be that way, though, as Hermann Simon illustrates through dozens of stories collected over four decades in the trenches and behind the scenes. A world-renowned speaker on pricing and a trusted advisor to Fortune 500 executives, Simon’s lifelong journey has taken him from rural farmers’ markets, to a distinguished academic career, to a long second career as a n entrepreneur and management consultant to companies large and small throughout the world. Along the way, he has learned from Nobel Prize winners and leading management gurus, and helped countless managers and executives use pricing as a way to create new markets, grow their businesses and gain a sustained competitive advantage. He also learned some tough personal lessons about value, how people perceive it, and how people profit from it. In this engaging and practical narrative, Simon leaves nothing out of the pricing cocktail, but still makes it go down smoothly and leaves you wanting to learn more and do more—as a consumer or as a business person. You will never look at pricing the same way again.

    @iramneek https://t.co/iWao1L4XUE

  • Rockonomics

    Alan B. Krueger

    "Drawing on interviews with leading artists and band members as well as journeymen musicians, music executives, and managers, economist Alan Krueger takes readers backstage to show how the music industry works. Incorporating tabulations of the latest data on concert revenues, ticket prices, royalties, streaming, tour dates, and merchandise sales, Rockonomics reveals who makes money and how, and it chronicles the radical transformation of the economics of the music industry in recent decades."--Book jacket

    @varma_ashwin97 https://t.co/VdQ8NnsFF5

  • The Grid

    Gretchen Bakke

    "Bakke [explores] the many facets of America's energy infrastructure: its most dynamic moments and its most stable ones, and its essential role in personal and national life. The grid, she argues, is an essentially American artifact, one which developed with us: a product of bold expansion, the occasional foolhardy vision, some genius technologies, and constant improvisation. Most of all, her focus is on how Americans are changing the grid right now, sometimes with gumption and big dreams and sometimes with legislation or the brandishing of guns"--Dust jacket flap.

    @adammcnamara @richardpenner great book

  • Cheap changes everything -- The magic of prediction -- Why it's called intelligence -- Data is the new oil -- The new division of labor -- Unpacking decisions -- The value of judgment -- Taming complexity -- What machines can learn -- Fully automated decision-making -- Deconstructing workflows -- Decomposing decisions -- Job redesign -- AI in the C-suite -- When AI transforms your business -- Managing AI risk -- Beyond business

    @giovfranchi good book

  • Collaborative Circles

    Michael P. Farrell

    Many artists, writers, and other creative people do their best work when collaborating within a circle of like-minded friends. In a unique study, Michael P. Farrell looks at the group dynamics in six collaborative circles, and gives vivid narrative accounts of each: the French Impressionists; Sigmund Freud and his friends; C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Inklings; social reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony; the Fugitive poets; and the writers Joseph Conrad and Ford Maddox Ford.

    motivated by this book https://t.co/lt8yrKnd6Y

  • Quality Investing

    Lawrence A Cunningham

    Quality. We all make judgments about it every day. Yet articulating a clear definition of quality in an investing context is challenging. This book addresses the challenge, and distills years of practical investing experience into a definitive account of this under-explored investment philosophy. Finance theory has it that abnormal outcomes do not persist, that exceptional performance will soon enough become average performance. Quality investing involves seeking companies with the right attributes to overcome these forces of mean reversion and, crucially, owning these outstanding companies for the long term. This book pinpoints and explains the characteristics that increase the probability of a company prospering over time - as well as those that hinder such chances. Throughout, a series of fascinating real-life case studies illustrate the traits that signify quality, as well as some that flatter to deceive. The authors' firm, AKO Capital, has a strong track record of finding and investing in quality companies - helping it deliver a compound annual growth rate more than double that of the market since inception. <i>Quality Investing</i> sheds light on the investment philosophy, processes and tough lessons that have contributed to this consistent outperformance.

    @steveclapham thank you! have read all those except Alchemy &amp; agree they are great

  • Engines That Move Markets is a comprehensive history of market-shaping industries and their impact on how we invest today. Now in its second edition, this modern investing classic highlights the history of industrial development and its impact on investors. By exploring key technological advances of the past and what they meant for investors - including electricity, the railroad, the telephone, the computer and more - it provides vital insights on how to appraise the new technology companies of the future. A complete and deeply researched history of industries and investing, the book is filled with fascinating and instructive details, including how Thomas Edison lost control of his company, the impact of the Standard Oil breakup, the early days of the wireless industry, and the course of the computer and internet revolution. Investors looking for industry-shaping investments will undoubtedly use Engines That Move Markets as their guide. This revised and updated second edition is the most definitive and comprehensive version yet.

    @alan_btc @MarceloPLima https://t.co/fSFoyT1bVv

  • 7 Powers

    Hamilton Helmer

    7 Powers details a strategy toolset that enables you to build an enduringly valuable company. It was developed by Hamilton Helmer drawing on his decades of experience as a strategy advisor, equity investor and Stanford University teacher. This is must reading for any business person and applies to all businesses, new or mature, large or small.

    @schaudenfraud just finished; agree great book

  • A New York Times Bestseller In latest bestseller, Atul Gawande shows what the simple idea of the checklist reveals about the complexity of our lives and how we can deal with it. The modern world has given us stupendous know-how. Yet avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the law, the financial industry--in almost every realm of organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people--consistently, correctly, safely. We train longer, specialize more, use ever-advancing technologies, and still we fail. Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the checklist. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can't, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds. And the insights are making a difference. Already, a simple surgical checklist from the World Health Organization designed by following the ideas described here has been adopted in more than twenty countries as a standard for care and has been heralded as "the biggest clinical invention in thirty years" (The Independent).

    @NewmoonCap great book!

  • Rockonomics

    Alan B. Krueger

    "Drawing on interviews with leading artists and band members as well as journeymen musicians, music executives, and managers, economist Alan Krueger takes readers backstage to show how the music industry works. Incorporating tabulations of the latest data on concert revenues, ticket prices, royalties, streaming, tour dates, and merchandise sales, Rockonomics reveals who makes money and how, and it chronicles the radical transformation of the economics of the music industry in recent decades."--Book jacket

    @Visage_1 @radkapital the book Rockonomics and this by Citi https://t.co/S9JjQIsHlz