BLUE OCEAN SHIFT BEYOND COMPETING BY W CHAN KIM RENEE MAUBORGNE

''PROVEN STEPS TO INSPIRE CONFIDENCE AND SEIZE NEW GROWTH''

My first impression after I 've read this book'' WOW ''.Probably the most important business book that I've ever read.Starting a business is a dream for all of us,but unfortunately a lot of startups fail since at the begining.One of the reasons is that we choose to enter in crowded markets where the competition is fierce without knowing this.

W Chan Kim/ Renee Mauborgne in their book explain how to avoid competition ''Red Ocean''and make the shift to ''Blue Ocean''creating new markets.Blue Ocean Shift is systematic process to move your organization from markets with bloody competition to new markets.

This book contain examples and stategies that we can us to create new markets and make the competition irrelevant.Blue Ocean Shift can be made following the 5 steps:

Step 1:   Get Started
            Choose the right place to start your blue ocean initiative.The Pioneer Migrator Map

Step 2:   Understand where you are
           Collectively  build one simple picture that captures your current state of plan ''The Strategy                    Canvas''

Step 3:    Imagine where you could be
                 Discover the pain points of buyers imposed by the industry  ''The Buyer Utility Map''                        Identify the total demand landscape you can unlock
               The three tiers of noncustomers

Step 4:    Find how you get there
               Apply systematic paths to reconstruct market boundaries ''The Six Paths Framework''
              Develop alternative strategic options that achieve differentiation and low cost''The Fout                      Actions Framework ''

 Step 5:   Make your Move
              Select your move at the blue ocean fair,conduct rapid market tests and refine the                               move.Finalize the move by formalizing your picture business model that delivers a win for                   both buyers and you

I dont want to insist about this steps you will find them in the book .In the end I recommend this book,following this stategies you will focus more on creativity by capturing new demand not fighting for existing customers.

THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR BY BENJAMIN GRAHAM

’BY FAR THE BEST  BOOK OF INVESTING EVER WRITTEN’’     WARREN BUFFETT  CEO& CHAIRMAN  BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC

The book  was first time published in 1949 by Ben Graham and revised later by Jason Zweig.  Ben Graham was born in 9 May 1894 was economic profess at Columbia Business School.

If it ‘s a person who contributed most to Warren Buffet development it’s with no doubt Ben Graham which was  his professor and mentor.Intelligent Investor is for Warren Buffett the book that has changed his investment philosophy and his life forever.Buffett later explained’’ I’m 85 % Ben Graham and 15% Philip  Fisher.

Can we call this book a definitive guide on value investing.’’Value investing is an investment strategy  that stocks are selected and trade for less their intrinsic value’’

From the beginning this book  wont tell you how to become rich over night but will tell you how to minimize the odds of suffering irreversible losses

                                                                  INVESTOR VS SPECULATOR

For many trading is associated with investment which is completely wrong .Simple fact that someone looks  to some charts hoping that price will go up or down it’s not investing.Here  we can add overtrading  buying or selling sotcks  frequently won’t help you to accumulate wealth.In Ben Graham view:’’An investment operation is which,upon thorough analysis promises safety of principal and adequate return.Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.’’

                                                                     

                                                              COMMON STOCK ANALYSIS

1)    General Long Term Prospects

2)       Management

3)      Financial Strenghts

4)      Dividend Record

5)      Current dividend rate

                                                  GRAHAM NET WORKING CAPITAL TEST

Stocks which are selling for less than net working capital

CURRENT ASSETS-TOTAL LIABILITIES+PREFERRED STOKS+LONG TERM DEBT

                                 GRAHAM STOCK SELECTION FOR DEFENSIVE INVESTOR

     1)   Adequate size of the enterprise

2    2)    Sufficiently Strong financial record (Company current assets should be at least twice current liabilities,also long term debt not exceed the net current assets)

3 3)       Earnings stability

44)     Dividend record uninterrupted payments for the past 20 years

5 5)   Earnings growth

    6)  1)      Moderate Price/Earnings Ratio   (Current price should not be more than 15 times average earnings) 

Price Earnings Ratio  =Share Price/Earnings per share

P/E below    10   is considered low

P/E between 10 and 20 is considered moderate

P/E > 20 expensive

7)  Moderate Ratio of prices to Assets Ratio of Price book

Book Vaue* P/E    1,5*15 ``22,5   Not exceed 22,5

BOOK VALUE=TOTAL ASSETS-INTANGIBLE ASSETS-LIABILITIES

According to  Graham a defensive investor is a person which is chiefly interested in safety plus freedom .

  

                GRAHAM STOCK SELECTION FOR ENTERPRISE  INVESTOR

1)      Financial condition (Current Assets at least 1 ½ times current liabilities,debt no more than 110%  NET Current Assets

2)      Earnings stability no deficit in the last 5 years

3)      Dividend record

4)      Earnings growth

5)      Price Less 120 % net tangible asstes

In conclusion I recommend to all to read ‘’The Intelligent Investor’’ and don’t forget what Graham said: In the short run the market is a voting machine,but in the long run is a weighing machine’’

THE EVERYTHING STORE BY BRAD STONE

If  I have to count a person who is revolutionizing the retail industry is with no doubt is Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon.Brad Stone in his book ‘’The everything store’’ explain  the story of Amazon.

Bezos graduated Princeston  in 1986 and started his eraly career on Wall Street.The decision  to left corporate environment and  to start his own business was a turning point in his carrer which helped him to become today the richest person in the world.

The company was set up in Seattle together with Shel Kaphan in a garage.Like many startups the main problem at the beginning was how to raise funds.Bezos started with initial investment of 10 000$  and continued to increase it progressive with 84 000$ and additional 100 000$ from his parents.

Amazon started as an online book stores but his view was another more exactly to revolutionize all retail industry via encommerce.On 16 July 1995 Amazon become visible to all web users  a giant was born.

After another fund raising Silicon Vally  venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins invested 8 mil $ acquiring a 13 % stake in the company.On may 15 1997 Amazon went public  raised 54 mil$.

From the beginning Amazon wanted as easy possible for customers to buy things from the site.Amazon’s ability to ship products efficiently  and offer precise delivery  times  to customer  gave the company a competitive edge over its rivals.

The company grow fast at the end of 2004 ,the company distribution system  become expensive and more unrealiable.Jeff Bezos wanted a system of distribution more reliable and he recruited an extremely talented supplu chain expert Jeff Wilke.

In January 2002 Amazon introduced ‘’Free super Saver shipping from orders above 99$ and dropped to 25 $.Amazon success dosent come only from innovative distribution strategies but also from acquisitions.Jeff Bezos  is good in spot threats like companies which compete.His approach is simple either try to buy that business or destroy them.


Over the time Amazon did important acquisition like :IMDB,Brithish web bookstore,Telebuch,Alexa Internet,Drugstore ,Pets.com,Gear.com,Greenlight.com,Home-Grocer.com,Zappos,,Diapers.com

We might think that Amazon is a retail company but is more than that is technological company too.Amazon Web Services AWS  is used like storage database for companies like Pinterst,Instagram,Netflix,NASA and CIA.

Amazon ability to be innovative in techonology made them a serious threats for companies like Google,Apple.In 2004 Amazon started to work on mysterious project Lab 126 to construct ebook devices.Bezos thought that the future of books will be ebooks,in that period Apple introduced Itunes a devices that can help to download music.For him the perspective that Apple or Google  would be able to built e book devices was extremely awful.

On 19 November 2007 Jeff bezos introduced Kindle ebook device and in the fall of 2012 Kindle Fire tablet.

After I read this book I discovered in Bezos an extremly good business person with his ability to conntinous innovate  and to ‘’ kill’’ all potential adversaries made him a very successful person.

In conclusion what makes Amazon so special after Jeff Bezos are:’’We are genuinely customer centric,we are genuinely long term orientedand we are genuinely like to invent.Most companies  are not those things.they arfe focused on the competitor rather than customer’’ does are the things that Bezos has understood and companies like Wallmart,Sears,target didn’t.

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SUPERINTELLIGENCE BY NICK BOSTROM

‘’WORTH READING,  WE NEED TO BE SUPER CAREFUL WITH AI’’   ELON MUSK  CEO TESLA &SPACE X

It truly deserved to be read.Since with the beginning of humankind people have tried to obtain the status of superintelligence.In his book Nick Bostrom explain:paths,dangers,strategies of superintelligence.Nick Bostrom professor  University of Oxford,director,Strategic Artificial Intelligence.

We can’t give an exact definition of artificial intelligence,but we define it like any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domain of interst.

What seemed to be unimaginable in the past ,today it ‘s happening artificial intelligence already out performs human intelligence in many domains.Few days ago at Stanford University reading comprehension test artificial intelligence machines built by Microsoft and Alibaba have beaten humans.Alibaba’s neural network scored 82.44 on test !!! and humans scored 82.304 and Microsoft 82.650

Early attempts to built artificial intelligence have been made for the first time by the mathematician I.J. GOOD who had served as statistician.In early 1980 Japan launched the first generation of Computer System Project that would serve as a platform for AI.In the 1990 new technique was launched which include neural networks and genetic algorithms (Good Old Fashioned Artificial Intelligence GOFAI)

Superintelligence have the following paths:

• ·         Artifical Intelligence
• ·         Whole brain emulation
• ·         Biological cognition
• ·         Brain computer interfaces
• ·         Networks and organizations

I will not speak about those you will find more details in the book.Recently Elon Musk launched a company Neurallink Corporation which is working to link the human brain with a machine interfaces creating micron sized devices.Other path of superintelligence is whole brain emulation can been made by a detailed scan of the brain of particular human brain.This might involve stabilizing the brain post mortem through vitrification (a process that turn tissue into a kind of glass).A machine could dissect the tissue on thin slices which could be fed into another machine for scaning perhaps an array ofelectro microscopes.The data from scanners is fed to a computer for automated image processing to reconstruct the three dimension of neural network that implement cognition in the original brain.

The adoption of AI could also create not only good things but also bad things like huge unemployment a lot of jobs will disapeer ,capability control problem undesirable outcomes can happen.Introduction of machine superintelligence would create a substantial existential risk but will reduce many other existential risk.

UNSHAKEABLE BY TONY ROBBINS

''TONY IS A FORCE OF NATURE''  JOHN C.BOGLE  FOUNDER VANGUARD GROUP

To gain  financial freedom is the main goal for  everyone.In his book Tony Robbins brings us powerful insights  about how we can accomplish this,he is an American bestselling author ,entrepreneur and life coach.

Investments  are in Robbins  view  a way to gain financial freedom.He has identified four core principles in making investment decisions:

1) DON'T LOSE

2) ASYMMETRIC RISK/REWARD

3)TAX EFFICIENCY

4)DIVERSIFICATION

Warren Buffet famous investor has two important rules on investing:

1) DONT LOSE MONEY

2)NEVER FORGET RULE NO 1

For many of us to invest in trade public companies sounds something scary.  People should know that stocks over the long run will be high,in the last 100 years we had a Great recession and 2008 financial crisis.

For average investors  Tony  recommend to invest in low index fund like ''Vanguard'' and to try to avoid as much as you can ''mutual funds''It's well know that most of the mutual funds do a terrific job.They charge you high fess and a study showed that only 96%  failed to beat the market over 15 year performance.

Robert Arnott  founder of Research Affiliates studied 203 actively mutual funds tracking their returns for the 15 years from 1984-1998.Only 8 of these 203 funds actually beat the SP500 index!!!

Investing activity can be done by yourself  Warren Buffet explained how his wealth has been created:''My wealth has come from a combination of living in America,some lucky genes and Compound Interest!! ''    Once Albert Einstein called ''compounding'' one of the wonders of the world.It's well  know that compounding over the long run do an amazing job.In his book Tony Robbins mention'' Theodore Johnson ''a UPS worker earned more than 14000 $/year  he saved 20% plus every bonus and invested in his company by age 90 accumulated 70 mil/$ wealth!!!

In the end I recommed to everyone  who wants to become financial free to read this book.

THE STARTUP WAY BY ERIC RIES

‘’HOW ENTREPRENEURIAL MANAGEMENT TRANSFORM CULTURE AND DRIVES GROWTH’’

What caught me attention is the ‘’entrepreneurial mangement’’  terminology I recognize that I haven’t studied it in the college.In his book Eric Ries explain how organizations after they reach certain size they start to die slowly from inside.

After being involved in many projects and coached more than hundred project teams he has discovered that one of the reasons that organizations are dying is lack of innovation.Big companies inevitable became bureaucratic.

In his viewing  any organization can adopt statup way principle by following:

1)      Continous Innovation

2)      Startup as atomic unit of work

3)      The Missing function

4)      The second funding

5)      Continous transformation

Eric Ries explained why entrepreneurial management is not a replacement for traditional management is a leadership framework designed specially for 21 century uncertainty it’s discipline that help managers to become more rigorous in the entrepreneurial part of their management.

The startup way requirw reform and changes on both sides of the traditional busines.In some business and incredible amount of talent and energy gets wasted and innovation is blocked in archaic and inflexible structure.In this process of transformation not only top managers are involved and also midle  managers and all workers.

The idea of this training programmeis that anyone can be coached in the entrepreneurial way of thinking.

In conclusion I recommend this book  for every entrepreneur and who wants to become entrepreneur.The Startup Way teaches companies of all size how effectively incubate and maintain an entrepreneurial culture.

PURPLE COW BY SETH GODIN

‘’THE OLD WAYS OF MARKETING ARE DEAD AND BEING SAFE IS NOW TOO RISKY’’

A book that I founded very interested is Purple  Cow written by  Seth Godin,it’s about marketing and how you can transform your company in a remarkable one.The   idea  with name of the  book come after a trip in France he had observed cows grazing and after a while all  those cows had something in common,they were boring.

In his vision the perfect ‘’Purple Cow has to be remarkable  than the others one.For years the marketers  have talked about P’s of marketing:

• ·         Product
• ·         Pricing
• ·         Promotion
• ·         Positioning
• ·         Publicity
• ·         Packaging
• ·         Pass-along
• ·         Permission

Generally speaking companies spend  millions on advertising  in hopes that they will recreate the glory days  of the TV industrial complex.Seth Godin argues that the TV industrial complex is a hemorrahging approach that marketers don’t have a clue what  to do about it.

He has identify two rules of how marketing is working:

THE OLD RULES WAS:

‘’Create safe,ordinary product and combine them with great marketing’’

THE NEW RULE IS:

''Create remarkable products that right people seek.''

( Recently I ‘ve travelled in Germany Munich  one of the famous beer is Augustiner despite it ‘s an old company last time that spend money on advertising was 1975 this an example of purple cow)

In today and future economic environment the winners will be the companies  that innovate and figure out what’s working fast and  do it more and figure out whats not working and kill it.

In conclusion I recommend for everyone who wants to become entrepreneur  to read this book it full with examples of companies that use old fashioned approaches and with companies that innovate that are purple cow.Purple Cow is not cheap shortcut,it is however the best strategy for your company to grow and to be remarkable.