It’s hard to accept the idea that it is time to make a change and move on. I was reminded of that by listening to two wonderful interviews with Michael Lewis, who has written a dozen great books and inspired me to write many times. Steven Dubner recently interviewed him on the Freakonomics podcast to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his classic book, Moneyball, about baseball General Manager Billy Beane and the Oakland As, who revolutionized the sports world by going against the veteran baseball scouts and looking differently at players and the game. After that, I listened to Steve…
Author: Lloyd Graff
Why does a kid living in shorts and a t-shirt in the Bahamas attract multi-billions of dollars to invest in cryptocurrency, while the machining world is auctioning off Haases and Davenports because they can’t find enough people to run them? The Sam Bankman-Fried story fascinates me, perhaps because it is so different from the world of machining parts and trading in 40-year-old screw machines. I know those of you who choose to read my blog today will probably think I flew off my Y-axis by writing about the flame out of the cryptocurrency boy genius, Sam Bankman-Fried, but I think…
Two clients in the machining business. One is going up for auction soon. The other hopes to sell for $10M. Both are family businesses run by brothers. One runs mostly National Acmes, the other Davenports, Wickmans, and Brown & Sharpes. One has well-trained operators, the other says they are quitting the business because they can’t get an operator nor setup man. The one that is auctioning off their machines did mostly military and medical, the successful shop is almost all automotive. I do not know all of the intricacies of these two firms by any means, but I have been…
How do boys grow into men? I am no expert, but I have two grown sons and two grandsons. I am happy about them all, even the one who is six months old. And, add my son-in-law who is a wonderful person, a friend, and a Cubs fan. I have thought a lot about how young boys grow up confidently and joyfully in a world where so much is stacked against them today. Start with school. Boys and girls develop at different speeds. Girls mature one to two years earlier than boys. They often get their period by the time…
I wish I hadn’t bought the story. Ford, the pickup truck gorilla, was going to take over the electric pick up market which was going to crush the gas and diesel portion over the next few years. Ford knows the pickup business like nobody else. The Japanese and Koreans know new cars, but trucks are a mystery for them. The Germans can spell BMW, but for hauling a boat or a jalopy, “nein.” So when Ford brought in new management, a swami from Apple, and committed at least five years of earnings to building lithium ion batteries and the vehicle…
What do you do if you are running a major pharmaceutical firm and a team of your employees comes to you with stunning news that an aging drug of yours, soon to lose patent protection, may be a treatment for Alzheimer’s? It happened at Pfizer in 2015. A team was analyzing death insurance claims for users of its products, including the rheumatoid arthritis drug, Enbrel. The computers were checking for the possibility that Enbrel might have had a peripheral benefit for its long-time users. To their amazement, they found that very few Enbrel patients died of Alzheimer’s. This was not…
When does a theoretical value become really valuable? When do you decide to buy or sell a business, particularly a precision machining business? How do you assess its value? How do you determine whether a business is a collection of machinery, tooling, and real estate, or if it is something of significantly more monetary value? Another way of saying this is, “does a business have an intangible value,” often called intellectual property? Does it have a valuable identity or brand, even if it is a limited one known only to people in a specific location or specialized field? Or, is…
In the financial world of banks and funds, stupid follows stupid, which then follows stupid. It would be funny if trillions of dollars of real people’s paychecks and savings were not the instruments of capital dumbness. I have saved a chunk of money over several decades and put a piece of it into the stocks of successful companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Costco, which are all thriving right now in the real world. But the hedge funds, banks, and pension funds that dictate the stocks’ value have been selling them by the billions every day, driving down their value even…
I just watched Ken Burns’ new documentary about the role the United States played in the Holocaust. In 1960, my life changed when I read the book and saw the movie, “Exodus.” The film, starring Paul Newman and directed by Otto Preminger, brought the Holocaust to life for a 16-year-old boy whose main interests were playing basketball and trying to understand girls. The story of the Holocaust, which had ended just 14 years earlier, became a powerful influence in my life. The movie was a fictionalized story in which Newman portrays a young refugee in World War II fleeing by…
How do you build a great team? It could be a business, a hospital, or a sports franchise. It’s easier to discuss sports because the results are more recognizable, so we will start there. Two of the best current baseball teams are the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. The Yankees number one star is outfielder Aaron Judge. Judge was offered a huge contract to stay with the Yanks before the season started, but chose to pass on it and bet on himself. He is having a terrific season with a chance to hit 60 home runs. He will…
