Biographies to help you with investing

[ENP]

What biographies have you read that you think have helped you to become a better investor?

I recently read "The Peoples Tycoon" on Henry Ford and "Man of our Time" on Robert Laidlaw (started Farmers department stores).

Both very interesting reads.

I've never particularly understood the principal of investing in companies with "good management" but after reading these two books I've definitely got a good understanding of how a capable leader and executive team can make a business succeed or fail.

What biographies have you read lately and what do you recommend to better understand business in general and make you a better investor.

The likes of Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Benjamin Graham etc are not particularly what I'm after as most people would have already read the likes of these.

[winner69]

One of the most inspiring books I have read is True to Our Roots by Paul Dolan

Bit of a sustainability story but Dolan turned Fetzer Wines into one of Americas biggest and successful wineries
http://www.amazon.com/True-Our-Roots-Fermenting-Revolution/dp/1576601501

On a similar note Peter Yealands is a success story as well and his book A Bloke For All Seasons is a good read

[percy]

A must read is Serious Fun,The Life and Times of Alan Gibbs.Gibbs just has such a clear vision of what a business should be doing.Just seems to understand the purpose of the business.
Other great reads are written by Ivan Fallon,which include;
The Rise and Fall of John Z Delorean.
The Player,The Life of Tony O'Reilly.
Billionair,The Life and Times of Sir James Goldsmith.
The Brothers,The Saatchi and Saatchi story.
Funny what you learn.The Saatchi brothers each made something like 20 or 25 cold calls each day looking for business/new clients even when they had become household names.I need to ring schools to make appointments and somedays when I am not getting many I think of the Saatchis and keep ringing until my diary is full.A bit like the answer one company's top salesman gave when asked why he was top salesman.I do an extra call everyday.
In the book Billionair Sir James made the point of putting in top staff to get top results.

[ENP]

What lessons were learned from reading these and what do you know put in practice as a result of reading them?

For example, from reading Henry Fords biography, I learned several lessons:

- It is not who has the flashest new idea that makes the money, it is the company that looks to do things more efficiently, produce products at the lowest cost for the masses and always put the customer first.
- Having the limelight cast on the CEO as a public figure is not always a good thing. Better to look for companies where the executive team are not there to promote their personal advancements instead of putting the company first.
- Having the founder of the company at the helm rather than appointed CEO's is preferable (as long as they don't lose their marbles as they get older, like Ford did)
- Being the market leader now is no gaurantee of being the market leader in the future.
- Treating you staff well and paying above average wages makes staff more engaged with the company and more than pays for itself.
- Companies can get too big which cause all sorts of issues.
- Vertical integration of producing products can create cheaper products (Ford owned iron ore mines, steel refineries, shipping docks and boats, glass manufacturers, etc to make the raw car products also)

The greatest thing I learnt however, is that even though a CEO/founder might once have been a great leader, they can fall from grace and drag their company along with it. I learnt more than anything, that the people at the top of the company have an huge influence on the investment performance and will now going forward do thorough background checks on the companies leaderships teams I'm looking to invest into, something I didn't go into much detail previously.

[POSSUM THE CAT]

ENP vertical integration is good untill somebody finds a new way of making the product or service in any one of the steps. Then it usually falls apart.