Technology, Capital Markets, Corporate Governance, Leadership, Entrepreneurship
Category: Leadership
Some companies execute smart, strategic acquisitions better than others. Here’s a short list of publicly-traded FinTech & Info Services companies that do M&A well: CoStar Group (tkr: CSGP), Intercontinental Exchange (tkr: ICE), IHS Markit (tkr: INFO) SS&C Technologies (tkr: SSNC) and Verisk (tkr: VRSK). Click Here for Revenue, EBITDA and related metrics. We love FinTech … Continue reading Build. Acquire. Repeat.
BB&T announced that it plans to acquire SunTrust primarily in an effort to scale its technology capability such that it may deliver more on-demand services to customers. This is a corporate governance issue. You simply DO NOT have the luxury to wait for Payments upstarts like Square (tkr: SQ) to capture a $30B-plus valuation ($40B-plus … Continue reading Too Little Too Late. BB&T & SunTrust.Premium
Magna International (tkr: MGA), got its start as a machine tool shop. Today, Magna is automotive supplier to major Auto OEMs, Tier I suppliers, Heavy Equipment manufacturers and Rideshare companies such as Lyft. Humble Beginnings Magna counts BMW, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Tata, Tesla, Toyota, a number of the China-based Auto OEMs as well as a … Continue reading Competition Comes from Below: Part II
Chinese manufacturers have mastered the smartphone manufacturing process. Take the case of Shenzhen-based Zowee, which manufactures a variety electronic components including smartphone technology. Zowee like many contract manufacturers won their OEM business given they were a low-cost provider capable of quickly scaling operations to meet demand while adhering to mutually agreed upon quality standards. Over … Continue reading Competition Comes from Below: Part I
FinTech market disruption has led to a bifurcation of FinTech providers - Lions and Lambs. See our "Lions & Lambs" company list with commentary at the end of this note. The FinTech space - whether it be the Capital Markets flavor or the Payments variety - is undergoing rapid change. Within Capital Markets - alternative … Continue reading Acquire or Be Acquired: FinTech Lions and LambsPremium
CEO tenure is getting shorter and we believe a primary cause is less than optimal alignment between CEOs, Executive Team members and Corporate Boards. Alignment Scale Exercise On a scale of 1-10 (10 is best) where would you rate the level of alignment between yourself and your direct reports? Between yourself and your Board of Directors?You may … Continue reading CEO – Executive Team – Board (“CEB”) AlignmentPremium
Financial Institutions May Recover Lost Glory If They Aggressively Adopt Technology Fee Compression As Far As The Eye Can See Long gone are the days of white-collared shirts, suspenders and fat fees. The Financial Services industry is reducing headcount across the board. No pocket of the capital markets is immune. Investment Banks, Depository Institutions and … Continue reading Will Financial Institutions Learn to Stop Worrying and Embrace Technology?Premium
The below content is comprised of excerpts from an article previously published by the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Charles A. O’Reilly recalls the time that his wife encountered Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in the Whole Foods market parking lot in Palo Alto. “She was walking out when he was walking out, and when he … Continue reading Narcissistic CEOs Carry Greater Legal Risk
Could we have predicted that Elon Musk's restlessness would have led to his founding of (SpaceX) even though he more than had his hands full with Tesla? How about his latest company - "The Boring Company" - could its founding have been predicted? The answer is "maybe". Are we surprised by Musk's emotionless approach to … Continue reading Predicting CEO Actions and Financial Outcomes Based On CEO PersonalityPremium
Regular readers know that we are partial toward Technology Founder CEOs vs. hired CEOs as a general rule. Our experience is that founder CEOs are generally better than hired CEOs at anticipating customer market needs, in many cases before customers know they have a need. Founder CEOs care deeply about details of the business that … Continue reading CEORater Technology Founder CEO Index Significantly Outperformed YTD
