The Ledger
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Teledyne Delivered 20.4% Annual Returns From 1963 to 1990
“From 1963 to 1990, Teledyne, the company that Henry Singleton helped build from scratch, delivered annual returns of 20.4%, while the S&P 500 managed a mere eight percent. If you'd invested 10,000 dollars in Teledyne in 1963, by 1990, you'd have over 1.8 Milli…”
Teledyne's Decentralized Model Influenced Berkshire Hathaway's Playbook
“Warren Buffett was an admitted singleton admirer, and we can see how Teledyne's decentralized structure with centralized capital allocation became central to Berkshire Hathaway's playbook.”
Teledyne's 1960s Stock-Funded Acquisitions Drove 374% Sales Growth
“And they purchased these companies using Teledyne's highly valued shares, often trading at 40 to 70 times earnings. They more than doubled the share count in the late sixties. But the financial results that followed more than made up for the shared dilution, t…”
Singleton Moved Teledyne Insurance Assets From Bonds to Depressed Equities
“During the 1968 to 74 period, when most investors considered bonds safe and stocks risky, Singleton took the opposite view. He instructed his insurance companies to move away from fixed income securities and toward equities when the stock market was depressed.”
Teledyne Investors Achieved Approximately 3,000% Returns Between 1972 and 1983
“Shareholders who stayed with Teledyne from the first buyback in 1972 achieved gains of approximately 3000% by 1983, transforming many patient investors into multi-millionaires.”
Parrish: Teledyne became the highest-priced NYSE stock at $302 in 1984
“After this transaction, Teledyne's stock climbed to 302 dollars per share by September, making it the highest priced stock on the New York Stock Exchange.”
Vanderbilt's Famous 'I'll Ruin You' Threat Letter Is Likely Apocryphal
“The letter perfectly capturing Vanderbilt's fierce reputation, Bias toward action and blunt style is likely apocryphal. Historians point out it first appeared decades later in Vanderbilt's obituary without evidence and the language used doesn't match Vanderbil…”
Vacuum incumbents rejected Dyson to protect lucrative replacement bag revenues
“The vacuum giants weren't just blind, they were trapped, because their business model ran on the razor and blades model, cranking out high margin replacement bags. A bagless vacuum didn't just challenge their technology, it threatened their whole way of busine…”
Dyson abandoned a £2.5 billion electric car project in 2019
“For example, when Dyson decided to invest 2.5 billion in developing an electric car, a project that was ultimately abandoned in 2019, he did so without having to justify the massive expenditure to shareholders or a board of directors.”
Estée Lauder leveraged a $115 price tag as a marketing hook
“When warned that no one would pay a 115 dollars for a cream, she didn't lower her price. She raised their curiosity. Her advertisement simply asked, what makes a cream worth a 115 dollars? Come meet Estee Lauder and find out.”
Parrish: Mellon's tax reforms eliminated federal income tax for most Americans by 1927
“By 1927, his reforms meant most Americans paid no federal income tax at all.”
Wozniak's Open Systems Sustained Apple While Jobs's Closed Models Initially Struggled
“Yeah, so the open one that Wozniak had created where people could put their own components in, take it apart, that was keeping them afloat. And Steve's version of the computer, which was closed and sort of more controlled, which is a theme I think we're gonna …”
Rockefeller's Father Ruthlessly Called In Loans to Test His Sons
“He loaned them money at the going rate of interest, showing them that they could do it too. But then, after they absorbed that lesson and tried it out for themselves, he'd go one step further and call in his loans to them suddenly, when they least expected it,…”
Parrish: Rockefeller loaned money at interest before age fourteen
“He added with some pride that he had loaned out money and got interest on it before he was 14 years old, and I knew well how to make out a note. My father taught me these things.”
Parrish: 19th-century railroads secretly rebated high-volume shippers below posted rates
“The official bill on a railroad shipment always showed a fixed rate, the same rate the railroad printed on the public schedule for everyone to see and what Rockefeller assumed, at first, everyone would pay. But the right kind of shipper, after he had moved eno…”
In 1863, crude oil averaged $2/barrel while refined kerosene sold for $13/barrel
“Crude averaged two dollars a barrel, while refined kerosene sold for 13, and a refinery could be built for a thousand dollars and run with just a handful of men.”
Rockefeller Halved Barrel Costs From Three Dollars Through In-House Manufacturing
“With other refiners paying three dollars a barrel, Rockefeller was soon building his own for a dollar 50.”
Standard Oil Saved Hundreds of Thousands by Cutting One Solder Drop
“39 drops became the standard across every plant the company owned. One drop of solder multiplied across what was eventually millions of cans easily saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Parrish: Rockefeller installed home telegraph to spend afternoons with family
“He had a telegraph wire run between his office and his house so he could spend three or four afternoons a week at home, Planting trees and playing with his kids, all the while he kept one of the largest companies on earth humming along down the road.”
Parrish: Rockefeller's father lived bigamously under alias in Illinois
“The children had no idea that their jolly grandfather was now living under a false name in Illinois with a second wife who knew nothing of their existence.”
Parrish: Rockefeller's Standard Oil stock was worth $18M in 1879
“When a newspaper that year guessed his fortune, it said five million dollars, and he didn't correct them. He never did. But we know now that a standard oil stock alone at the time was worth about eighteen million.”
Rockefeller wore rotating wigs of varying lengths to simulate natural hair growth
“And in time, he would keep a rotation of wigs, Cut to different lengths, which he wore in sequence over the weeks so that his hair seemed to grow longer and then be freshly trimmed.”
Chung Ju-Yung Was the First South Korean Civilian to Cross the DMZ
“He was the first South Korean civilian to cross the border since the country was split in half.”
At Its Peak, Hyundai Constituted 16% of South Korea's Entire Economy
“While many people think of Hyundai as a car company, at its peak, it accounted for 16% of South Korea's entire economic output.”
Chung Drove 1,001 Cows Into North Korea to Repay His Father
“65 years later, when he drove a 1001 cows across the demilitarized zone, he was still trying to pay it off.”
Chung Ju-Yung Was the World's Ninth Richest Person in 1996
“By 1996, he was the ninth richest person.”
Hyundai Was Left 650,000 Won in Debt After the Goryeong Bridge Project
“The contract paid Hyundai 547,800 won, which had seemed like an astronomical sum when they signed it two years earlier. But the project had left them 650,000 won in debt. They'd spent more than twice what they earned.”
Hyundai Was the Only Korean Builder Directly Registered With the US Military
“Because of his wartime work with the Americans, they were the only Korean construction company registered as direct customer of the U.S. Eighth Army.”
Early Forecasts Ranked Burma and the Philippines Above South Korea for Industrialization
“When they ranked the Asian countries most likely to industrialize, Burma and the Philippines were near the top. Korea was near the bottom.”
German Engineers Capped Hyundai Workers' Welding at 18 Meters Daily
“Hyundai workers were not permitted to weld more than 18 meters a day.”
Hyundai Was the First Korean Company to Build a Nuclear Plant
“Eventually, Hyundai became the first Korean company to build a nuclear power plant.”
Hyundai Won a $5.2M Thai Highway Contract Over 29 Global Competitors
“Hyundai submitted a bid of 5.2 million dollars and beat out 29 companies from 16 countries.”
Hyundai Completed the Soyang River Dam 30% Below Original Cost Estimates
“The dam broke ground in 1967 with Hyundai as the contractor. It was finished six years later at a cost 30% below the original estimates. It became the largest rock-filled dam in Asia.”
Hyundai Built Its Ulsan Ford Assembly Factory in a Record Six Months
“The initial assembly plant went from groundbreaking to full-scale operations in under six months, which set a record for any Ford assembly factory anywhere in the world.”
Hyundai Had 82% Hands-On Labor Versus 60% for Japanese Shipbuilders
“A typical Japanese shipbuilder at the time had 20% of its workers in engineering and technical support. Hyundai had 11. The Japanese had 14% in supervisory roles. Hyundai had seven. That meant 82% of Hyundai's people were doing actual hands-on work, compared t…”
Hyundai Built Ships in Half the European Time at 10% Lower Prices
“A ship order placed at Hyundai took half the time it would take in a European yard, and at a price a good 10% lower than the nearest price competition.”
Hyundai Reached Over $10 Billion in Annual Sales by the Mid-1980s
“By the mid-nineteen-eighties, Hyundai was doing over ten billion dollars in annual sales and was the largest company in Korea.”
Seoul's Olympic Facilities Were 60% Complete During the 1981 Bidding Session
“Seoul's facilities were already 60% complete. Nagoya's plans were still on paper.”
Chung Ju-Yung's Eldest Son Died on a Highway His Father Built
“Chung's eldest son, Mong Pil, was killed in a car accident on the expressway, which was the very highway his father had built.”
Chung Ju-Yung Divided the Hyundai Empire Among His Six Surviving Sons
“In his final years, as his health started to decline, Chung divided Hyundai amongst his six surviving sons. Each one received at least one company.”
South Korea's Per Capita GDP Grew 140-Fold Over Chung Ju-Yung's Lifetime
“When he died in 2001, South Korea was the world's 11 largest economy. Per capita GDP was roughly 11,000 dollars. That is a hundred and forty-fold increase in a single human lifetime.”
Parrish: Ray Kroc and Walt Disney served in the same WWI Red Cross company
“When World War I began, Ray was 15. He lied about his age to join the Red Cross as an ambulance driver. In his company was another young man who had also lied about his age to get in. While everyone else chased girls on leave, this kid stayed in camp drawing p…”
Parrish: 80% of Original McDonald's Sales Came From Hamburgers Alone
“First, the teenage crowd was driving away families, and second, despite a menu of 25 items, 80% of sales came from one thing, the hamburger.”
Kroc's McDonald's contract required registered mail approval for specification changes
“He could not deviate from their specifications unless changes were approved in writing, signed by both brothers, and sent by registered mail.”
Harry Sonneborn turned $1,000 into $170 million in McDonald's real estate
“They started Franchise Realty Corporation with a thousand dollars in capital, and Harry would eventually turn it into over a hundred and seventy million dollars worth of real estate.”
Parrish: Early McDonald's stores technically violated the McDonald brothers' contract
“They refused to send registered letters authorizing changes, which meant Technically, every store he built was in violation of their original contract. Their attorney could shut them down at any moment.”