Coburn Ventures Podcast

Over the years many of our clients have transitioned from analyst to Portfolio Manager or consider working toward that goal. This entire podcast is dedicated to that transition: today we bring you a few of the "greatest hits" that come up that we hope might help you on that journey. Let's jump in.

Last week, we discussed Decision Making Prisons with Dr. Morris Pickens, and today, we continue the discussion with Greg Parsons. Greg has held many positions inside corporations as Creative Director, CMO and as a Design and Strategy consultant at Stone Yamashita Partners. This background has given him a view into many stages of the creative and strategic process inside corporations. Greg will discuss common prisons he has seen teams get into and importantly, offers us some key questions to help us work our way out. Let's jump in.

One of the more under-the-surface questions we get from clients is: Can we help them understand why their decision-making processes do not exactly seem to be serving them and their team? They know they can do better but can't quite identify what's in the way. Today we have Dr. Morris Pickens to discuss what he calls decision making prisons, and how to get out of them. Let's jump in.

What's one way to become the world's greatest investor? Break investing down into its component parts, understand very specifically our roles and responsibilities, and then puruse the elements to great really, really good at. Today we bring you our working definition of the component parts of investing: the four jobs of stock picking. For the 200th (!) time, let's jump in!

Today, we are talking problem solving for investment teams by way of a conversation with our friend Matthias Hollwich, architect and founder at HWKN. We'll start with highlights from one of our most recommended books: Roger Martin's The Opposable Mind, and then Matthias will offer practical exercises that can put any of us on a more expanded path toward the problem-solving investors are looking for: seeing the uncommon investable insights amidst the noise. Let's jump in.

Why are we talking about turnarounds today? We have been examining some periods in which money is made or lost very, very quickly and therefore we are sharpening our tools to more accurately, helpfully gauge where companies and then stocks may go. Turnarounds certainly fit this bill: they are typically very high degree of difficulty, the timing of the investment is important, and the hero's journey they present is so tempting. We are fortunate to have our friend Dan Papes with us today to tell us more about decisions he made to help steer a massive turnaround at Digital Realty. Let's jump in.

We have been having conversations about "stock disasters" over the last few months, so now let's balance the scales a bit by discussing some of the elements that can lead to stock successes. As usual, we're going to start below the ground level, at that point when you're first asking yourself that very important question: "I think I'm onto something here, but could the market really be so wrong?". Let's jump in.

Last week we discussed forming and building up great investment teams. Today we're discussing a few tactics and strategies that we have seen activate and advance those teams and their investment work really powerfully, and that's in the design of investment meetings. Let’s jump in.

What can we do to build great investment teams? Today, we walk through six questions that we ask ourselves and work on with others when aiming to build a team from scratch or more likely, make enhancements as we go. There's something in here for everyone, and this conversation may be one of the most "worth it" we've explored: a great team is so much more than the sum of its parts by far-- it brings people alive, and produces uncommon value, and that's the kind of leverage we really like. Let’s jump in.

Investing is a practice of constant adaptation… adaptation to changes in our world, society, the economy, the market, and our own industry. Today we are looking closer at just how the game has changed in the last decade or so, and some potential pathways for constructive, ongoing adaptation. Let’s jump in.