This week’s highlights:  Criminal Actors, Private Equity’s Bubble, and What to think about Goop?

Fifteen on Friday – 07/27/18 – Issue 294

Happy Friday Everyone,

We are back after some late summer R&R, and starting to get ready for an 8/6 start to school here in Nashville.

This week, I was interviewed by Greg Lewis from the Tennessee Center for Family Business and its Family Business Today Podcast.  (Interview here).  Greg and I spent about an hour talking about the important of family governance.  Here at Woodmont, I work closely with a wonderful mix of families and family-owned companies.  While those conversations often center around the management of investment assets, inevitably they turn to discussing how families manage the ‘business of the family.’

As James Madison observed, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”  The same is arguably true of families. Families who attempt to stay invested together for generations (and not fall prey to the old saying regarding shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations) find themselves facing the same questions that lead to any sort of representative democracy.  Greg and I delve into this topic and more in much greater detail.

All the best,

David

Food for Thought:

1. NewYorker – The Man Who Captures Criminals for the D.E.A. by Playing Them.  Spyros Enotiades is an actor for hire who specializes in the role of cartel boss, middleman, or money manager in sting operations.
2. Medium – Who Was She? A DNA Test Only Opened New Mysteries – Credit SF – How Alice Collins Plebuch’s foray into “recreational genomics” upended a family tree.
3. Slate – No Shirt, No Swipe, No Service – Credit CM – Cash is a miracle. So why are more businesses refusing it?
4. NYT – An Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Election.  Election results down to the polling location level – fascinating to see how much group-think may exist in a neighborhood.
5. TheAtlantic – How Silicon Valley Has Disrupted Philanthropy  Local nonprofits are having trouble attracting money from tech donors. The solution? Talk like a start-up.

Business/Economics:

1. II – Everything About Private Equity Reeks of Bubble. Party On!
2. Economist – How bosses should respond to the sound of the clock ticking.  Companies have to balance living in the moment against long-term planning
3. HBR – How Family Business Owners Should Bring the Next Generation into the Company
4. OSAM – The Value Winter.  That has not held true since 2010. To summarize the findings through this lens: this period hasn’t been an abnormally strong run for growth companies. Instead, its been a very bad period for the EPS growth of value stocks.
5. IA – Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones: Trading, Career and Philanthropy

Culture/Tech/Science:

1. NYT – How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company Worth $250 Million  Inside the growth of the most controversial brand in the wellness industry.
2. NYMag – The Most Important Video Game on the Planet. – How Fortnite became the Instagram of gaming.
3. NYT – The Water Wars of Arizona  Attracted by lax regulations, industrial agriculture has descended on a remote valley, depleting its aquifer — leaving many residents with no water at all.
4. Gates – Why diagnosing Alzheimer’s today is so difficult—and how we can do better
5. NYT – Two for the Road in 80 Countries (and Counting) – Michael and Debbie Campbell became full time vagabonds when they retired.  Here they reflect on 5 years on the road.