---
product_id: 4750130
title: "The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success"
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---

# The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

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desertcart.com: The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success: 9781422162675: Thorndike Jr., William N.: Books

Review: Up-Close of Study of the Capital Allocation Masters - Rated this 5-star book for the following reasons: 1. Book addresses a key question I had: "Given the exorbitant cost of acquiring an MBA, are they a pre-requisite to becoming an excellent CEO?". Mr. Thorndike provides detailed case studies that answer "NO" to the question above. More importantly, Thorndike provides the learning tools for readers to emulate the examples. 2. Value investors know Buffett's recommended authors include Graham & Dodd (intrinsic value), Fisher (business economics), Munger (excellent companies at fair prices). However, none of the books above address what Buffett looks for when analyzing company's management. Thorndike received the glowing endorsement when Warren mentioned this book in his 2012 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter where he stated: "The Outsiders, by William Thorndike, Jr., is an outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation. It has an insightful chapter on our director, Tom Murphy, overall the best business manager I've ever met." 3. Addresses what each superstar CEO made different, that yielded spectacular results. Most suggestions could be applied by small-business owners, as the purpose of the book is to slowly change your mindset and approach towards those applied by Tom Murphy, Harry Singleton and others. 4. Other books may be a collection of BRK annual reports, great Buffett wisdom. However, Thorndike starts each chapter with Buffett quotes praising the CEO addressed in each book. Suspect Buffett interviews were performed for this book, either in person or by reading previous interviews. Great time-saving, and worth studying each case. 5. Challenges many management dogmas taught by MBA and Wall Street. For example: idea that diversification is the best approach; cash-flow analysis superior indicator than many popular financial ratios; autonomy and performance monitoring combined yield superior results than constant memos and micromanagement.
Review: Great Book! - If you never picked up a book and only got information through financial media outlets you would think the best CEO’s ever were Jack Welch, Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, and a few others that love media attention. I’ve always been obsessed with reading business biographies, especially on those CEO’s that are rarely interviewed on CNBC. Often times these less visible CEO’s have track records far greater than their counterparts. I want to learn how they grew their companies and built shareholder value. The Outsiders is a great book that looks at eight CEO’s who produced above average returns for shareholders over the long term. In most cases these CEO’s were not attention junkies and were not only great capital allocators but also time allocators. Over 29 years Tom Murphy of Capital Cities produced a 19.9% compounded annual return. Over 27 years Henry Singleton of Teledyne produced a 20.4% compounded annual return. Over 17 years Nick Chabraja of General Dynamics produced a 23.3% compounded annual return. Over 46 years (to 2011) Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway produced 20.7% compounded annual returns for shareholders. These CEO’s as well as four others in the book were not your cookie cutter capital allocators and did not fit the mold of most business books you read today. Every one of the CEO’s was a first time CEO (no past history of success) and more than half had very little industry experience before taking over as CEO. I found these two things very interesting especially has it relates to microcap investing. So often I’m trying to find great management in microcap, which can be difficult if there is no prior resume. In all instances the Outsider CEO’s led decentralized organizations empowering others to make decisions and they were great capital allocators. Outsider CEO’s ran high cash flowing businesses, which allowed them to take on debt (few ever issued equity) to make the strategic acquisition or to buy back stock when it was historically cheap. All but one of the eight companies bought back 30%+ of outstanding shares over a period of time. Some took on debt to buy back shares at depressed levels. For those that did use equity to make acquisitions they always knew when to do it (when the stock was expensive). There are many more takeaways from the book, but you’ll just have to read it. I found the book very easy to read and in many cases reinforced management principles I’ve always felt were important. You will enjoy The Outsiders.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #4,177 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2 in Strategic Business Planning #5 in Systems & Planning #56 in Leadership & Motivation |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 3,991 Reviews |

## Images

![The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Cth988JcL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Up-Close of Study of the Capital Allocation Masters
*by F***S on December 26, 2013*

Rated this 5-star book for the following reasons: 1. Book addresses a key question I had: "Given the exorbitant cost of acquiring an MBA, are they a pre-requisite to becoming an excellent CEO?". Mr. Thorndike provides detailed case studies that answer "NO" to the question above. More importantly, Thorndike provides the learning tools for readers to emulate the examples. 2. Value investors know Buffett's recommended authors include Graham & Dodd (intrinsic value), Fisher (business economics), Munger (excellent companies at fair prices). However, none of the books above address what Buffett looks for when analyzing company's management. Thorndike received the glowing endorsement when Warren mentioned this book in his 2012 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter where he stated: "The Outsiders, by William Thorndike, Jr., is an outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation. It has an insightful chapter on our director, Tom Murphy, overall the best business manager I've ever met." 3. Addresses what each superstar CEO made different, that yielded spectacular results. Most suggestions could be applied by small-business owners, as the purpose of the book is to slowly change your mindset and approach towards those applied by Tom Murphy, Harry Singleton and others. 4. Other books may be a collection of BRK annual reports, great Buffett wisdom. However, Thorndike starts each chapter with Buffett quotes praising the CEO addressed in each book. Suspect Buffett interviews were performed for this book, either in person or by reading previous interviews. Great time-saving, and worth studying each case. 5. Challenges many management dogmas taught by MBA and Wall Street. For example: idea that diversification is the best approach; cash-flow analysis superior indicator than many popular financial ratios; autonomy and performance monitoring combined yield superior results than constant memos and micromanagement.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great Book!
*by M***B on April 6, 2014*

If you never picked up a book and only got information through financial media outlets you would think the best CEO’s ever were Jack Welch, Donald Trump, Mark Cuban, and a few others that love media attention. I’ve always been obsessed with reading business biographies, especially on those CEO’s that are rarely interviewed on CNBC. Often times these less visible CEO’s have track records far greater than their counterparts. I want to learn how they grew their companies and built shareholder value. The Outsiders is a great book that looks at eight CEO’s who produced above average returns for shareholders over the long term. In most cases these CEO’s were not attention junkies and were not only great capital allocators but also time allocators. Over 29 years Tom Murphy of Capital Cities produced a 19.9% compounded annual return. Over 27 years Henry Singleton of Teledyne produced a 20.4% compounded annual return. Over 17 years Nick Chabraja of General Dynamics produced a 23.3% compounded annual return. Over 46 years (to 2011) Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway produced 20.7% compounded annual returns for shareholders. These CEO’s as well as four others in the book were not your cookie cutter capital allocators and did not fit the mold of most business books you read today. Every one of the CEO’s was a first time CEO (no past history of success) and more than half had very little industry experience before taking over as CEO. I found these two things very interesting especially has it relates to microcap investing. So often I’m trying to find great management in microcap, which can be difficult if there is no prior resume. In all instances the Outsider CEO’s led decentralized organizations empowering others to make decisions and they were great capital allocators. Outsider CEO’s ran high cash flowing businesses, which allowed them to take on debt (few ever issued equity) to make the strategic acquisition or to buy back stock when it was historically cheap. All but one of the eight companies bought back 30%+ of outstanding shares over a period of time. Some took on debt to buy back shares at depressed levels. For those that did use equity to make acquisitions they always knew when to do it (when the stock was expensive). There are many more takeaways from the book, but you’ll just have to read it. I found the book very easy to read and in many cases reinforced management principles I’ve always felt were important. You will enjoy The Outsiders.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Unique but Imperfect.
*by E***O on August 15, 2018*

In my opinion, this is a book on Applied Corporate Finance. As those who ever took a Corporate Finance class know, the basic premise on which that discipline is built is Maximization of Shareholder Value. Well, this book is about exactly that. According to Corporate Finance theory, the maximization of shareholder value is achieved by following three principles -the Investment Principle, the Financing Principle, and the Dividends Principle. The Investment and Dividends Principles are what in the book the author calls Uses of Cash (Capital Allocation). The Financing Principle has more to do with what the author refers to as the Sources of Cash (asset divestitures, issues of equity/debt, etc). Questions related to operations efficiency are only covered superficially, but that's fine. From the get go, the author is honest about the focus and scope of the book. The book is unique in the sense that there are not many books on Corporate Finance case studies. This book is exactly that. Each of the CEOs/Companies profiled here is a separate case, dealt with in separate chapters. I like that. It is also a well-written, well-researched book. It is an entertaining read and, on top of everything, it has the endorsement of Warren Buffett. You cannot ask for much more than that. Oh wait! Yeah, the presentation is pretty nice. I like good looking, elegant hardcover books. Now, why am I holding back one star? See below: 1- The book is kind of dogmatic about certain rules deemed as universal (e.g., never pay dividends, never issue new shares, etc). If things were so simple, then Corporate Finance would not exist as a discipline. 2- The author kind of pounds on Jack Welch as someone who, even though successful, has not accomplished the same level of results that the CEOs included in his book did. Well, guess what, you cannot compare apples to oranges. Jack Welch was the CEO of GE. These other CEOs took over when their companies were very small, and completely unknown. I'm not saying the they do not deserve credit for what they accomplished. All I'm saying is that you cannot expect GE's stock price to grow at the same pace small cap stocks grow. Scale is important. So, when adding Jack Welch into the mix, the relevant question is no longer who grew the stock price the most, but who generated the most profits (in absolute dollar value) for their shareholders. Again, scale is important. It's not the same to be the president of the US than the president of Uruguay. I guess the ultimate goal of the book is not so much to teach Corporate Finance lessons but to help value investors select good CEO's. "Good" in this sense means CEO's who are focused on maximizing shareholder value in the long term. In other words, CEO's whose interests are in line with those of the owners of the company. Now, this might be an outdated approach since good Corporate Governance practices are nowadays widespread, which ensures that the compensation of executives is tied to business results. Not to say that there are still not principal-agent issues around, but it is definitely not as pervasive of a problem as it was decades ago. Hope this helps. Cheers!

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*Last updated: 2026-02-19*