William N. Thorndike Jr.'s Books

The Outsiders

Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

By: William N. Thorndike Jr.

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The Outsiders

Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

By: William N. Thorndike Jr.

“An outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation.” — Warren Buffett #1 on Warren Buffett’s Recommended Reading List, Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder Letter, 2012 Named one of “19 Books Billionaire Charlie Munger Thinks You Should Read” in Business Insider. “A book that details the extraordinary success of CEOs who took a radically different approach to corporate management.” — Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation “Thorndike explores the importance of thoughtful capital allocation through the stories of eight successful CEOs. A good read for any business leader but especially those willing to chart their own course.” — Michael Dell, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Dell What makes a successful CEO? Most people call to mind a familiar definition: “a seasoned manager with deep industry expertise.” Others might point to the qualities of today’s so-called celebrity CEOs—charisma, virtuoso communication skills, and a confident management style. But what really matters when you run an organization? What is the hallmark of exceptional CEO performance? Quite simply, it is the returns for the shareholders of that company over the long term. In this refreshing, counterintuitive book, author Will Thorndike brings to bear the analytical wisdom of a successful career in investing, closely evaluating the performance of companies and their leaders. You will meet eight individualistic CEOs whose firms’ average returns outperformed the S&P 500 by a factor of twenty—in other words, an investment of $10,000 with each of these CEOs, on average, would have been worth over $1.5 million twenty-five years later. You may not know all their names, but you will recognize their companies: General Cinema, Ralston Purina, The Washington Post Company, Berkshire Hathaway, General Dynamics, Capital Cities Broadcasting, TCI, and Teledyne. In The Outsiders, you’ll learn the traits and methods—striking for their consistency and relentless rationality—that helped these unique leaders achieve such exceptional performance. Humble, unassuming, and often frugal, these “outsiders” shunned Wall Street and the press, and shied away from the hottest new management trends. Instead, they shared specific traits that put them and the companies they led on winning trajectories: a laser-sharp focus on per share value as opposed to earnings or sales growth; an exceptional talent for allocating capital and human resources; and the belief that cash flow, not reported earnings, determines a company’s long-term value. Drawing on years of research and experience, Thorndike tells eye-opening stories, extracting lessons and revealing a compelling alternative model for anyone interested in leading a company or investing in one—and reaping extraordinary returns.

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Page Count

274

Publisher

Harvard Business Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1422187586

ISBN 13

9781422187586

The Stress Test Every Business Needs

A Capital Agenda for Confidently Facing Digital Disruption, Difficult Investors, Recessions and Geopolitical Threats

By: Jeffrey R. Greene,Steve Krouskos,Julie Hood,Harsha Basnayake,William Casey

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The Stress Test Every Business Needs

A Capital Agenda for Confidently Facing Digital Disruption, Difficult Investors, Recessions and Geopolitical Threats

By: Jeffrey R. Greene,Steve Krouskos,Julie Hood,Harsha Basnayake,William Casey

Future-proof your business today for stronger performance tomorrow The Stress Test Every Business Needs: A Capital Agenda for Confidently Facing Digital Disruption, Difficult Investors, Recessions and Geopolitical Threats provides a comprehensive approach to creating value and flexibility in an increasingly volatile business environment that presents both great risks and opportunities every day. The authors extend the banking “stress test” concept to a company’s Capital Agenda — how executives manage capital, execute transactions and apply corporate finance tools to strategic and operational decisions. Having a static Capital Agenda, however appropriate for your current market position, is not enough in today's uncertain world. Long-term success comes from building resilience into each element and in the way those elements interact. The book uses a broader definition of business stress that includes traditional macroeconomic and geopolitical risks, as well as technological disruption, hostile takeovers and activist shareholders. Companies that make poor strategic decisions or underperform operationally will likely find themselves facing great stress. And that stress is symmetric; threats come from downside risks and from missed opportunities. The chapters address the how and why of essential issues such as: Formulating corporate strategy in a digital world Pre-empting activist shareholders Restoring distressed companies to operational and financial health Ensuring effective collaboration among strategy, finance and operations Getting the most out of your advisors Proactively managing intrinsic value Rigorously allocating capital across the enterprise Acquiring and divesting for optimum value Syncing financing decisions with business strategy and capital market conditions Incorporating tax planning throughout the Capital Agenda Liberating excess cash with leading working capital management practices Aligning strategic goals and metrics to reach your company’s full potential Companies that develop strategy and set operational priorities with a balanced Capital Agenda are best positioned to control their own destiny. The Stress Test Every Business Needs provides a roadmap to future-proof your business today for stronger performance tomorrow.

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Page Count

216

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published Date

ISBN 10

1119418135

ISBN 13

9781119418139

Public Health and the Risk Factor

A History of an Uneven Medical Revolution

By: William G. Rothstein

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Public Health and the Risk Factor

A History of an Uneven Medical Revolution

By: William G. Rothstein

A risk factor is anything that increases the risk of disease in an individual.

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Page Count

480

Publisher

Boydell & Brewer

Published Date

ISBN 10

1580461271

ISBN 13

9781580461276

Writing Computer and Information History

Approaches, Connections, and Reflections

By: William Aspray

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Writing Computer and Information History

Approaches, Connections, and Reflections

By: William Aspray

This is not a book about the history of computing or the history of information. Instead, it is a meta-historical book about the research and writing of these types of history. The formal presentation of historical research in the form of a publication often hides the process by which the topic was selected, boundaries were drawn, evidence was selected, analytic approach was chosen and applied, results were presented, how this work fits into a larger body of scholarship, the implicit goals and biases of the author, and many other similar issues. This process of learning about the various ways to carry out computer history or information history can be enriched by this collection of reflective essays by experienced scholars, discussing the craft that they practice. This is a book that concerns both computer history and information history. The first scholarship in computer history by professionally trained scholars began to appear in the 1970s, so we are approaching a half century of research and publication in this area. The field has generated numerous pieces of exemplary scholarship from various perspectives such as intellectual history of individual technologies, business histories of firms, economic histories of market sectors, externalist histories of funding and professionalization, and so on. However, the field continues to evolve, especially as computing and communication technologies have drawn together in the form of the Internet and social media; and with them a new set of scholars is participating, drawn not only from the history of science and technology, but also from the communication and media studies fields. Powerful theories, approaches, and frameworks are being increasingly drawn more widely from both the humanities and the social sciences to inform the practice of computer history. The scholars in this volume look at what’s happened, what’s happening now, and where historical scholarship in these disciplines is headed.

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Page Count

515

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

153818382X

ISBN 13

9781538183823

The Outsiders

Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

By: William Thorndike

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The Outsiders

Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

By: William Thorndike

It's time to redefine the CEO success story. Meet eight iconoclastic leaders who helmed firms where returns on average outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 20 times.

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Page Count

274

Publisher

Harvard Business Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1422162672

ISBN 13

9781422162675

Book's by William N. Thorndike Jr.

The Outsiders

The Outsiders

The Stress Test Every Business Needs

The Stress Test Every Business Needs

Public Health and the Risk Factor

Public Health and the Risk Factor

Writing Computer and Information History

Writing Computer and Information History

The Outsiders

The Outsiders

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