Killing the Market


Book Description

Robert W. Wilson is the greatest investor of all time, on the only criterion that counts: percentage return on capital. What you make with what you have, what you started out with. Wilson would be the first to point out that there are investors richer than himself; but on a percentage-return basis, he is unmatched, and untouched. He received $15,000 from his mother in 1958, and he ran this stake to the fabulous sum of $230 million, by 1986. With assistance he himself sought out, he then nearly quadrupled his net worth to $800 million, by the year 2000. This return, after taxes no less, is more than 50,000 to one. More than 5,000,000 percent. Wilson did it in about forty years, without partners. How? How, possibly? This book, "Killing the Market," tries to find, or at least get close to, an answer. Robert Wilson quit the investing business in 1986, because he had "lost his touch," as he said. The most productive of men, the hardest working of men, he started to move into philanthropy. Eventually he became just about the most important philanthropist in the United States. Of the $800 million he accumulated, he had given away fully $700 million of it at the time of his death, in 2013 (by his own hand). Movingly, Robert Wilson's gifts were never to things that entertained him, or to pet projects; they were always to charities trying very hard to make the world a better place for everybody.




Killing Marketing: How Innovative Businesses Are Turning Marketing Cost Into Profit


Book Description

Killing your current marketing structure may be the only way to save it! Two of the world’s top marketing experts reveal the next level of breakthrough success—transforming your marketing strategy into a standalone profit center. What if everything we currently know about marketing is what is holding us back? Over the last two decades, we’ve watched the entire world change the way it buys and stays loyal to brands. But, marketing departments are still operating in the same, campaign-centric, product-led operation that they have been following for 75 years. The most innovative companies around the world have achieved remarkable marketing results by fundamentally changing their approach. By creating value for customers through the use of owned media and the savvy use of content, these businesses have dramatically increased customer loyalty and revenue. Some of them have even taken it to the next step and developed a marketing function that actually pays for itself. Killing Marketing explores how these companies are ending the marketing as we know it—in favor of this new, exciting model. Killing Marketing provides the insight, approaches, and examples you need to understand these disruptive forces in ways that turn your marketing from cost center to revenue creator. This book builds the case for, literally, transforming the purpose of marketing within your organization. Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose of the Content Marketing Institute show how leading companies are able sell the very content that propels their marketing strategy. You’ll learn how to: * Transform all or part of your marketing operation into a media company * Integrate this new operation into traditional marketing efforts * Develop best practices for attracting and retaining audiences * Build a strategy for competing against traditional media companies * Create a paid/earned media strategy fueled by an owned media strategy Red Bull, Johnson & Johnson, Disney and Arrow Electronics have succeeded in what ten years ago would have been deemed impossible. They continue to market their products as they always have, and, through their content-driven and audience-building initiatives, they drive value outside the day-to-day products they sell—and monetize it directly. Killing Marketing rewrites the rules of marketing—enabling you to make the kind of transition that turns average companies into industry legends.




Killing Sacred Cows


Book Description

Our culture is riddled with destructive myths about money and prosperity that are severely limiting our power, creativity, and financial potential. In "Killing Sacred Cows", Garrett B Gunderson boldly exposes ingrained fallacies and misguided traditions in the world of per-sonal finance. He presents a revolutionary perspective that can create unprecedented opportu-nity and wealth for individuals. Our financial lives are intimately connected to our societal contributions, and we must be financially free in order to achieve our fullest potential. Yet most people are held captive in their financial lives by misinformation, propaganda, and lack of knowledge. Through well-reasoned arguments and pitiless logic, Gunderson attacks these sacred cows with revelatory insights, such as: High returns without high risk; "Security" without a corporate job; Debt that increases your financial productivity; Enjoying your money instead of waiting for retirement. "Killing Sacred Cows" is a must-read for brave individuals willing to question common assumptions and teachings, overcome the herd mentality, break through financial myths, and live a purpose-ful, passionate, and prosperous life. Investors seeking financial advice in The Little Book That Makes You Rich will find this to be a must-read for anyone who wants to achieve their financial potential today.




Kill the Company


Book Description

In the ever-changing world of business, we've arrived at a point where process has trumped culture, where the race toward efficiency has left us unable to reach our potential. Stuck in the land of status quo, we've forgotten how to think. The very structures put in place to help businesses grow are now holding us back;; it's time to Kill the Company. This book is a call to arms: to start a revolution in how we think and work. But instead of more one-size-fits-all change initiatives forced upon employees, we need to embrace small changes that create ripple effects throughout the organization. Lisa Bodell urges companies to move from "Zombies, Inc." to "Think, Inc." Thinking can no longer be exclusive to the creative team or lead strategists. A culture of curiosity must be fostered among the ranks to shake up our standard practices, from unproductive meetings to go-nowhere strategic planning. This revolution can and will awaken our ability to think, and ultimately, to innovate and grow.




How to Kill a Unicorn


Book Description

A unique behind-the-scenes look at the groundbreaking methodology that today's most in-demand innovation factory uses to create some of the boldest products and successfully bring them to market. Today, innovation is seen by business leaders and the media alike as the key to growth, a burning issue in every company, from startups to the Fortune 500. And in that space, Fahrenheit 212 is viewed as a high-performance innovation SWAT team, able to solve the most complex, mission-critical challenges. Under Mark Payne, the firm's president and head of Idea Development, Fahrenheit 212, since its inception a decade ago, has worked with such giants of industry as Coca-Cola, Samsung, Hershey's, Campbell's Soup, LG, Starbucks, Mattel, Office Depot, Citibank, P&G, American Express, Nutrisystem, GE, and Goldman Sachs, to name but a few. It has been praised as a hotspot for innovation in publications like Fortune, Esquire, Businessweek, and FastCompany. What Drives Fahrenheit 212's success is its unique methodology, combining what it calls Magic--the creative side of innovation--with Money, the business side. They explore every potential idea with the end goal in mind--bringing an innovative product to market in a way that will transform a company's business and growth. In How to Kill a Unicorn, Mark Payne pulls back the curtain on how the company is able to bring more innovative products and ideas successfully to market than any other firm and offers blow by blow inside accounts of how they grapple with and solved their biggest challenges.




Debunkery


Book Description

Legendary money manager Ken Fisher outlines the most common—and costly—mistakes investors make. Small cap stocks are best for all time. Bunk! A trade deficit is bad for markets. Bunk! Stocks can't rise on high unemployment. Bunk! Many investors think they are safest following widely accepted Wall Street wisdom—but much of Wall Street wisdom isn't so wise. In fact, it can be costly bunk. In Debunkery: Learn It, Do It, and Profit From It—Seeing Through Wall Street's Money-Killing Myths, Ken Fisher—named one of the 30 most influential individuals of the last three decades by Investment Advisor magazine—details why so many investors fail to get the long-term results they desire. The short answer is many investors fail to question if what they believe is true—and are therefore blinded by tradition, biases, ideology, or any number of cognitive errors. Your goal as an investor shouldn't be to be error-free—that's impossible. Rather, to be more successful, you should aim to lower your error rate. Debunkery gets you started by debunking 50 common myths—but that's just the beginning. It also gives you the tools you need to continue to do your own debunkery for the rest of your investing career.




Killing Orders


Book Description

V.I.'s battleaxe Aunt Rosa is under investigation by the FBI and SEC after counterfeit stock certificates were found at St. Albert's Priory, where she serves as treasurer. As malicious as her aunt is, V.I. knows she's not dishonest, so V.I. vows to protect her from taking the fall. But V.I. starts questioning the strength of her family ties when a menacing voice on the phone threatens to throw acid into her eyes if she doesn't butt out. The stakes are high as she begins to sniff out a connection between Chicago's most powerful institutions: the Church and the Mob.




You Can Be a Stock Market Genius


Book Description

A comprehensive and practical guide to the stock market from a successful fund manager—filled with case studies, important background information, and all the tools you’ll need to become a stock market genius. Fund manager Joel Greenblatt has been beating the Dow (with returns of 50 percent a year) for more than a decade. And now, in this highly accessible guide, he’s going to show you how to do it, too. You’re about to discover investment opportunities that portfolio managers, business-school professors, and top investment experts regularly miss—uncharted areas where the individual investor has a huge advantage over the Wall Street wizards. Here is your personal treasure map to special situations in which big profits are possible, including: -Spin-offs -Restructurings -Merger Securities -Rights Offerings -Recapitalizations -Bankruptcies -Risk Arbitrage Prepared with the tools from this guide, it won’t be long until you’re a stock market genius!




Market Forces


Book Description

From the award-winning author of Altered Carbon and Broken Angels–a turbocharged new thriller set in a world where killers are stars, media is mass entertainment, and freedom is a dangerous proposition . . . A coup in Cambodia. Guns to Guatemala. For the men and women of Shorn Associates, opportunity is calling. In the superheated global village of the near future, big money is made by finding the right little war and supporting one side against the other–in exchange for a share of the spoils. To succeed, Shorn uses a new kind of corporate gladiator: sharp-suited, hard-driving gunslingers who operate armored vehicles and follow a Samurai code. And Chris Faulkner is just the man for the job. He fought his way out of London’s zone of destitution. And his kills are making him famous. But unlike his best friend and competitor at Shorn, Faulkner has a side that outsiders cannot see: the side his wife is trying to salvage, that another woman–a porn star turned TV news reporter–is trying to exploit. Steeped in blood, eyed by common criminals looking for a shot at fame, Faulkner is living on borrowed time. Until he’s given one last shot at getting out alive. . . .




The Little Book of Market Myths


Book Description

Exposes the truth about common investing myths and misconceptions and shows you how the truth shall set you free—to reap greater long-term and short-term gains Everybody knows that a strong dollar equals a strong economy, bonds are safer than stocks, gold is a safe investment and that high PEs signal high risk...right? While such "common-sense" rules of thumb may work for a time as investment strategies, as New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Ken Fisher, vividly demonstrates in this wise, informative, wholly entertaining new book, they'll always let you down in the long run. Ken exposes some of the most common—and deadly—myths investors swear by, and he demonstrates why the rules-of-thumb approach to investing may be robbing you of the kinds returns you hope for. Dubbed by Investment Advisor magazine one of the 30 most influential individuals of the last three decades, Fisher is Chairman, and CEO of a global money management firm with over $32 billion under management Fisher's Forbes column, "Portfolio Strategy," has been an extremely popular fixture in Forbes for more than a quarter century thanks to his many high-profile calls Brings together the best "bunks" by Wall Street's Master Debunker in a fun, easy-to-digest, bite-size format More than just a list of myths, Fisher meticulously explains of why each commonly held belief or strategy is dead wrong and how damaging it can be to your financial health Armed with this book, investors can immediately identify major errors they may be committing and adjust their strategies for greater investing success