📚 Roger's Highlights

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The control frauds did not create this optimal environment for fraud. They exploited the criminogenic environment and led the campaign to maintain and even improve it. The control frauds, of course, did not announce that they were entering the industry to loot it, and since the essence of control fraud is the vast inflating of income, they appeared to be the most profitable S&Ls in America. As a result, Pratt never identified and put out of business a control fraud and never identified the wave of control frauds entering the industry. He praised them as entrepreneurs. Pratt disdained traditional S&L CEOs and considered them the problem. The control frauds had dug in for two years before Gray began to fight back.

The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One

William K. Black

gamely trying to keep himself and my company alive, I sounded an upbeat tone. Blue Ribbon, I said, would probably morph over the years into a generalized sporting goods company. We’d probably have offices on the West Coast. And one day, maybe, in Japan. “Farfetched,” I wrote. “But it seems worth shooting for.” This last line was wholly truthful. It was worth shooting for. If Blue Ribbon went bust, I’d have no money, and I’d be crushed. But I’d also have some valuable wisdom, which I could apply to the next business. Wisdom seemed an intangible asset, but an asset all the same, one that justified the risk. Starting my own business was the only thing that made life’s other risks—marriage, Vegas, alligator wrestling—seem like sure things. But my hope was that when I failed, if I failed, I’d fail quickly, so I’d have enough time, enough years, to implement all the hard-won lessons. I wasn’t much for setting goals, but this goal kept flashing through my mind every day, until it became my internal chant: Fail fast.

Shoe Dog

Phil Knight

These case studies helped me resolve a paradox that has appeared repeatedly in my attempts to help established companies that are confronted by disruptive entrants—as was the case with Blockbuster and U.S. Steel. Once their executives understood the peril that the disruptive attackers posed, I would say, “Okay. Now the problem is that your sales force is not going to be able to sell these disruptive products. They need to be sold to different customers, for different purposes. You need to create a different sales force.” Inevitably they would respond, “Clay, you’re just naive. You have no idea how much it costs to create a new sales force. We need to leverage our existing sales team.” Or I would say, “You know that brand of yours? It isn’t going to work on this new disruptive product. You need to build a different brand.” Their response was just the same. “Clay, you have no idea how expensive it is to create a new brand from scratch. We need to leverage one of our existing brands.” The language of the disruptive attackers was completely different: “It’s time to create the sales force” and “It’s time to build a brand.”

How Will You Measure Your Life?

Clayton M. Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon

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