Discovering Investment services and Investment strategy from the famed conglomerates

Investment Strategy is an individual process and with investment services reaching new realms, there is always room for innovation.

A proper investment strategy is from GE’s outgoing CEO. The investment strategy adapted was Fix-close-or Sell and when GE expands business the position without compromise should be No.1 or No.2 in the market. This investment service ideology actually tests one’s strength. Founders and entrepreneurs have personal attachment to products and Fix-Close-or Sell investment strategy is the hardest to swallow. Facts are, it is impossible to close or sell unless more value is attached than imagined.

The misconception is to assume that selling a business is easy. Overestimating the product’s worth, racing to turn rich overnight in a single transaction leads to high pricing and becoming a long-term owner or investor. In the process, the market is lost and time spent fixing it which arises only when things go wrong but never when good.

This is where being No.1 or No.2 comes into play. Eliminating guesswork and fixing helps achieve top positions. An investment service is not an overnight occurrence. It takes sometime before shaping up with competitive positioning.

Any dream mixed with passionate obsession and backed with grit advocates the Gates’ theory – Think it, Do it, Fix it – a basic interface with GE’s Fix it, Close it, Sell it.

Drawing the correlation from baseball, opportunities are plenty for home runs and strike-outs. A proper investment service teaches scoring home runs – get out of the dug out, walk to the plate and swing away. Chances of missing are high and that’s reason for people to stay in the dugout of life and don’t participate!

 

From Dan Peña – "The Money Messiah" and Mentor/Coach for The New Millennium

Dear Friend and Subscriber:

FIX – CLOSE – OR SELL!
BE #1 OR #2!

It’s been a few weeks longer than expected since my last newsletter. I had an unexpected serious illness within my immediate family which kept me occupied. He’s 82 years old and looks like me, so you can guess who it is. Thankfully, all is moving toward a better scenario.

During this ordeal, I had time to reflect on the successful transactions I’d been involved in during recent years vis-a-vis the real tragedies. I then thought about them individually in relationship to GE’s great outgoing CEO, Jack Welch. He has run GE extremely successfully for twenty years using two major benchmarks, (1) Fix-Close-or Sell and (2) whatever business GE was in had to be either #1 or #2 in its market. Of course, the former requires extremely painful decisions which test a person’s strength.

Fix-Close-or Sell is the hardest for the normal entrepreneur to deal with because it’s normally its baby, i.e., the founder would find it difficult, if not almost impossible, to close it and/or sell it (unless it was for a lot more than you ever imagined.) I don’t need to explain the closing issue. It should be self-explanatory. Turning the key on any business is extremely difficult! I speak from experience. Selling a business should be easier, but often is not. Why? Well, we all think our baby is worth more than it is, and we normally are trying to get rich off one transaction so we price it too high and become a long-term owner/investor. We may even miss the market completely. I have done this myself a few times!

Therefore, we wind up continuously trying to fix it. And we normally fix it when things go wrong – not when things are good, trying to improve whatever we are doing. Many times I have heard, "If it’s not broken, don’t fix it." This is wrong!

This is where being #1 or #2 in a particular endeavor comes into play. If you can fix whatever you are doing to achieve the #1 or #2 position, like GE, the guesswork is taken out of the equation. It’s pure numbers at this point. Few do it!

When you look at GE’s formula, and it was derived before Welch took the helm, it becomes somewhat easier to understand GE’s tremendous success. And don’t forget GE has had a stream of great CEO’s long before Welch. It’s hard for the normal person to imagine striving for the #1 or #2 position in marketing, or getting out. Especially having to, perhaps, just close your operation down. Well, dear friends, the men and women who run these organizations aren’t "normal."

I saw a movie recently on TV call "Pirates of Silicon Valley." It told the storey of Bill Gates and Steve Job and their partners in the early days, circa 1975, and into the late 1980’s. I ended up buying the video from Amazon.com. It’s an incredible story of dreaming mixed with passionate obsession laced with a good deal of "true grit." It was very telling how they outmaneuvered IBM and others. I highly recommend it. Though not mentioned in the film, Gates supposedly has a theory or precept that says Think it, Do it, Fix it! It basically interfaces with GE’s Fix it, Close it, Sell it in an obtuse way. Gates knows his stuff doesn’t always work!

In retrospect, over the years, like others, I’ve allowed myself to hang on too long with several entities. In hindsight, I, like many others, haven’t been able to close as many entities down as I should have. Therefore, I, too, have relegated myself to trying to fix stuff when it might not have been fixable.

The main difference is I’ve been involved in dozens and dozens of opportunities, therefore giving myself and my colleagues opportunities for home runs, which were few and far between but still more than if I hadn’t! Remember with home runs come strike outs. For decades Babe Ruth, the former American baseball home run king, was also the leader in strike outs. In fact, though his total home run record was broken by Hank Aaron many years ago, Ruth still holds the strike out records.

The Gateses, Welches, Jobs and Ruths understand you can’t hit a home run unless you get out of the dug out, walk to the plate and swing away. You can’t hit it out of the park unless you swing and swing and swing! Knowing very well you will miss most of the time. This, of course, is why people stay in the dugout of life and don’t really participate…and that’s too bad!

To Your Quantum Leap,
Dan Peña

PS Our January internet newsletter winner was Nick Galtos of Switzerland. He will receive FREE my book, Your First 100 Million. Congratulations Nick! If my memory is correct, he was an Olympian in ice hockey! He doesn’t need a free anything. Nick has followed QLA precepts since 1996. He has been very successful. He’s one of my successes!

PPS For those of you who haven’t checked, there are now three (instead of one) Tests for Success on my website. The best scores will be eligible for free QLA prizes as well.

PPPS. Remember as promised, as part of the new QLA Millennium Internet Format, a ‘Free Consultation Program’ was initiated — 01/01/01. Once a quarter, the subscriber who introduces the most new subscribers to the newsletter, will receive one hour’s FREE consultation. THE NEW SUBSCRIBER MUST MENTION YOUR NAME AND SUBSCRIBE VIA MAIL@DANPENA.COM. This one hour consultation [worth $3,000.00], can be used in parts, or all at once over a given year. Alternatively, it can be used to reduce the cost of any QLA seminar. Monthly winners of the introduction program will receive my best-selling book "Your First 100 Million" FREE –a $400.00 value.

Yearly winners will receive a FREE three-day "Executive Castle Seminar" at Guthrie Castle — a $9,000.00 value. In addition, for every "Your First 100 Million" purchased via my website, a 10% discount on the "Executive Castle Seminar" will be given .All the above incentives are exclusively for the benefit of QLA Internet Newsletter subscribers ONLY. Specifics on the new QLA Millennium Internet Newsletter program will be posted on my website SOON, but the race began 01/01/01. Questions can be forwarded to: mail@danpena.com