The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 20 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Jacobs: Sensible M&A creates massive shareholder value with unmatched certainty
“I love M&A as a way to create value for shareholders because I don't know of another way on a risk adjusted basis on a certainty level that Is more likely to create massive shareholder value than doing sensible M&A.”
Jacobs: Getting the major trend right overrides operational mistakes in business
“In business, in the business world, you've got to get the major trend right. You've got to get the major trend right. And as my main business mentor, may he rest in peace, Ludwig Jesselson used to say, you can mess up a lot of things, but if you get the main t…”
Jacobs: Catching the main trend matters more in business than operational perfection
“In business, in the business world, you've got to get the major trend right. You've got to get the major trend right. And as my main business mentor, may he rest in peace, Ludwig Jesselson used to say, you can mess up a lot of things, but if you get the main t…”
Jacobs: Capital cost arbitrage and operational improvements drive M&A value
“The biggest lever, the biggest component is the differential between what I raise capital at due to my relationships with mostly institutional investors and because of the track record and what I can deploy that at on doing acquisitions. The second biggest lev…”
Jacobs: FP&A should calibrate manager forecasts against their historical accuracy
“The FP&A people are really good at figuring out who's sandbagging, and who's exaggerated? By that, what I mean by that is you have some managers who just do their personalities or for whatever reason, or maybe they're playing games with their bonus. They want …”
Jacobs: Business Initiatives Are Meaningless Talk If They Do Not Enrich Shareholders
“All the things I'm doing of hiring people and putting in technology, all the things we've been talking about for the last couple hours, that all comes down to making money for shareholders. If you're not making money for shareholders, it's just jabber jabber. …”
Jacobs: Shareholder returns are a business's single true report card
“In business, the bottom line, the report card is,
How much money did you generate for your shareholders?
That's the one, it's a, it's an examination with one question on it.
It's how much did you make your stockholders?
How much money did you make for your sto…”
Jacobs: Capital cost spread and operational improvement drive M&A value
“The biggest lever, the biggest component is the differential between what I raise capital at due to my relationships with mostly institutional investors and because of the track record and what I can deploy that at I'm doing acquisitions. The second biggest le…”
Jacobs: Business leaders should validate and agree before disputing or leading
“They're not disagreeing with you without first finding a way of agreeing with you. Joining, then leading. Validating than disputing. So even when they are changing the way you're thinking and say, gee, is there a better way to look at that? Is there another wa…”
Jacobs: High-performing meetings require zero devices and full non-judgmental concentration
“An element of that meeting is everyone in the meeting shuts off all their devices and concentrates, concentrates, non-judgmentally, non-judgmental concentration on the one person who's speaking at a time. No side conversations, no talking over each other. One …”
Jacobs: Non-revenue overhead should be an organization's lightest part
“The heaviest part should be parts of the organization that make money, that generate revenue, that close to the customer, that generate sales.”
Jacobs: Zero debt is suboptimal because modest leverage boosts per-share returns
“I don't think it's an optimal balance sheet if you have no debt. Because you can improve the returns by shrinking your share count, because you have fewer shares. So the same amount of returns is, is greater per share, because you have fewer returns. So I thin…”
Jacobs: Managers fundamentally only manage return on capital and return on time
“There's only two things a manager manages. Return on capital and return on time.”
Jacobs: A CEO is never smarter than the sum of their board
“I am never going to be smarter. Then the sum of all the directors, that's never going to happen mathematically.”
Jacobs: Capital cost spread and business improvements drive M&A value
“The biggest lever, the biggest component is the differential between what I raise capital at due to my relationships with mostly institutional investors, and because of the track record, and what I can deploy that at I'm doing acquisitions. The second biggest …”
Jacobs: Running high-value meetings requires device bans and absolute single-speaker focus
“Everyone in the meeting shuts off all their devices and concentrates, concentrates, non-judgmentally, non-judgmental concentration on the one person who's speaking at a time. No side conversations, no talking over each other. One person speaks at a time, but e…”
Jacobs: Non-revenue overhead must be an organization's lightest layer
“Heavy, heavy on the non-revenue generating top
Part of the organization, which should be the lightest part of any organization.
The heaviest part should be parts of the organization that make money, that generate revenue, that close to the customer, that gener…”
Jacobs: Meeting endings dictate participant psychology, requiring positive conclusions
“When I run meetings, I like to make it like an Oreo cookie. I like to make the good stuff, the negative stuff, but then end on the good stuff. It's very important how you end a meeting. For whatever reason, psychologically, how you end a meeting makes a big di…”
Jacobs: A Manager Only Manages Return on Capital and Return on Time
“There's only two things a manager manages, return on capital and return on time.”
Jacobs: Leaders must validate and join before disputing someone's thinking
“Joining, then leading. Validating, then disputing. So even when they are changing the way you're thinking, say, gee, is there a better way to look at that? Is there another way we can look at that and be more constructive? Before doing that, before that disput…”