Hamilton Helmer – Power + Business - [Invest Like the Best, EP.174]
Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy
Colossus
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2020
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My guest today is Hamilton Helmer, the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Strategy Capital and the author of one of the best business books in history called 7 Powers, which is the topic of much of our conversation. He has spent his career as a practicing business strategist: advising companies, investing based on strategic insights and teaching strategy. In the last three decades, he has also utilized his strategy concepts as a public equity investor. In this conversation we cover all seven business powers, from counter-positioning to scale economies, and how companies earn and keep those powers. Any investor or businessperson should understand these concepts, and 7 Powers is the best work I’ve seen that explains them in depth. Please enjoy our conversation.
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Show Notes
(1:31) – (First question) - What power means to him
(5:05) – Benefits being more common than barriers in the power equation
(6:28) – How early-stage companies develop their barriers
(11:23) – The power of counter positioning and how he’s seen it applied
(14:47) – The product side of counter positioning
(16:39) – Daniel Ek Podcast episode
(17:27) – Applying the idea of counter positioning to yourself
(20:40) – A cornered resource
(23:49) – A look at google as a cornered resource
(27:12) – Unique power of network economies
(31:18) – What subtleties disqualify network effects
(32:54) – Nuances of scale economies
(35:56) – Learning economies and who can scale it better
(37:07) – Building a switching cost and barrier into your business
(40:10) – Branding as power
(44:27) – Defining process power and how it differs from scale economies
(46:40) – The notion of the time lag and cash flow
(50:42) – Why is so much power concentrated in technology businesses
(52:07) – What does power mean for customers
(53:43) – Developing power as an art vs science, and the best power artists
(55:08) – The kindest thing anyone has done for him
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome everyone. |
| 0:05.5 | I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy and this is Invest Like The Best. |
| 0:08.6 | This show is an open-ended exploration of markets, ideas, methods, stories, and of strategies |
| 0:13.9 | that will help you better invest both your time and your money. |
| 0:17.2 | You can learn more and stay up to date at investorfieldguide.com. |
| 0:24.6 | Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. |
| 0:28.5 | All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do |
| 0:32.9 | not reflect the opinion of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management. |
| 0:36.3 | This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis |
| 0:40.6 | for investment decisions. |
| 0:42.4 | Clients of O'Shaughnessy Asset Management may maintain positions and the securities discussed |
| 0:46.2 | in this podcast. |
| 0:47.6 | My guest today is Hamilton Helmer, the co-founder and chief investment officer of Strategy Capital |
| 0:53.9 | and the author of one of the best business books in history called Seven Powers, which is |
| 0:58.0 | the topic of our conversation. |
| 0:59.8 | He has spent his career as a practicing business strategist advising companies, investing |
| 1:03.8 | based on strategy insights and teaching strategy. |
| 1:06.6 | In the last three decades, he has also utilized his strategy concepts as a public equity |
| 1:10.6 | investor. |
| 1:11.6 | In this conversation, we cover all Seven Business Powers from counter-positioning to scale |
| 1:15.8 | economies and how companies earn and keep those powers. |
| 1:19.6 | Any investor or business person should understand these concepts and Seven Powers is the best |
... |
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