BLOG OF ADAM HARTUNG
No Bad Markets
Frequently investors look for "good markets" when seeking a place to put money to work. On the flip side, frequently management that is performing poorly will blame their weak results on a "bad market." Listening to this, it would be...
Double up – then out?
The headline in the business section of The Chicago Tribune screamed "United Doubles Up On Profit" (see article here). You would think United airlines (see chart here) was a great story of turnaround success. After all, the airline only returned...
If at first you don’t succeed …..
Wal-Mart has been stumped in finding a growth path for several years (see chart here). Once one of America's fastests growing companies, Wal-Mart now trails Target, Kohl's and JCPenney's growth rates - and profit margins. Dropping prices only went so far...
Phoenix in the Crosshairs
The CEO with the hottest seat in corporate America right now is probably Ed Zander of Motorola (see article here, see chart here.) And well it should be hot, as recent negative results now verify Motorola is once again in a Growth Stall (see article here). ...
Business Myths
Readers of this blog know I am no fan of Sears Holdings. Bringing together Mr. Lampert's Lock-in to private equity cost cutting behavior with Sears' out of date Success Formula was like finding out you have cancer shortly after suffering a heart attack. ...
Record Machinations
Do you remember the old Smith, Barney television ad where the professorial actor said "We make money the old fashion way. We EARN it."? More executives appear to need reminding of this. In today's market report from Merrill Lynch (see info here, page 2) we learn...
More, Better, Faster, Cheaper
When was the last time you enjoyed an airplane flight? Flying is one time when as a customer the more you consume, the less happy you become. I don't know anyone flying commercial U.S. airlines that enjoys the experience. It's amazing, ever since...
It’s all about business growth
I was in a heated argument this week with a stock broker. His claim was that all anyone should care about is earnings. I told him that was not true. In fact, what is most important to investors is the business growth which can lead to future cash...
They Never See It Coming
You know I'm no fan of McDonald's (see chart here.) As detailed in previous blogs, the leadership is horribly Locked-in to its old Success Formula, and is expending lots of company resources to protect that Success Formula in the face of unhappy investors and...
Private Equity Quote
This week Blackstone, one of the world's largest private equity firms announced it was likely to soon go public. Ironic that a business based upon taking companies private is now going public... Reflecting upon this, Merrill Lynch today ran the following...
Racing to the Exit
Too often Locked-in companies literally race toward the exit of their business. And such seems to be the case with Ford (see chart here). Back on 3/15/07 I blogged that Ford was Defending and Extending its bad business by selling one of its good...
When Less is More.2
My last email on WalMart prompted a comment from Barney. He asked my opinion of the 5-year, 10-year and 30-year prospects for Wal-Mart. Great question, worthy of a response to all readers. The longer out the timeline, the more bearish I am. Strategy...
When Less is More?
WalMart's valuation has gone nowhere for more than 5 years (see chart here.)The equity today is worth 12% less than it was in 2003, meanwhile the Dow Jones Industrial Average (of which WalMart is a component) is up something like 25% (see chart here). Yesterday...
Is it worth it?
Last week Coca Cola (see chart here) announced it was ponying up over $4 billion to buy Glaceau, a company with only $355 million in revenue (see PR announcement here, see article here). Rarely are such lofty prices paid for a company not in high tech, so...
A Drunk can spoil the party
In January of this year I blogged about the White Space prevalent in the highly Disruptive Virgin culture. Sir Richard Branson has built an empire from small beginnings by constantly Disrupting his organization and creating White Space. Many high paying...
Signalling Lock-In
On May 5 the rumor hit the newspapers that Microsoft was considering buying Yahoo (see article here). Both companies insisted this rumor was unfounded. Then, on May 10 it was reported that Microsoft bought a 4% stake in CareerBuilder (see article here),...
Swimming Toward the Whirlpool
Eddie Lampert has finished yet another year at the helm of Sears Holdings. And during that time he's proven he can cut costs. He hasn't proven he can make money - even by selling assets. The stock remains highly priced largely on the belief he's...
Defend to the Death
Sometimes market Challenges wipe out large numbers of businesses. As I posted in my last blog, Amazon's approach to internet retailing of books wiped out thousands of independent booksellers, as well as most chains (anyone remember Crown Books?) When such...
Facing Challenges
Challenges don't affect only large companies. Since the internet has become part of our lives, many small businesses have seen the emergence of enormous Challenges. Many have altered industries completely, wiping out several small businesses. For...
Finding Optimism
Lately I've been pretty hard on companies in this blog, so today I'm taking time to highlight two examples of companies following The Phoenix Principle on the road to long-term evergreen success. Firstly is Motorola (see chart here). As previously blogged,...
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