Allen & Company

Strategic Concepts & Mechanics

Signature MoveCalm as a Weapon at the Negotiation Table Signature MoveCollect Relationships Like Intelligence Assets Signature MoveGifts That Outlast the Commission Check Identity & CultureConsensus Hiring, Two Promotes Per Import Cornerstone MovePackage the Elements, Then Force the Bid Identity & CultureMailroom Encyclopedia Before Anyone Else Wakes Competitive AdvantageBe the Outlier in a Multiplayer Contest Operating PrincipleTreat Every Client as a Corporation Signature MoveThousand Letters a Year, Zero Left Unanswered Cornerstone MoveNo Fee Letter, Just Trust—Then Name Your Price Decision FrameworkNever Promise a Name You Can't Deliver Cornerstone MoveOrchestrate the Room Before Anyone Sits Down Signature MoveCars in the Garage Before Dawn Risk DoctrineNo Written Contracts, No Anniversary to Leave Relationship LeverageThe Ten-Minute Watch on the Desk Strategic PatternMirror Their Culture, Not Yours Signature MovePerot: Obscene Demands Until They Stop Saying No Signature MoveBuffett: Insurance Float as a Super Margin Account Signature MoveHuizenga: Close in the Stench Until They Say Yes Cornerstone MoveSteal the Playbook, Then Outrun the Author Risk DoctrineLuck Acknowledged Then Ruthlessly Exploited Identity & CultureJoy in the Chase Not the Prize Capital StrategyHold Your Equity Until It Compounds Past Nine Figures Identity & CultureThick Skin Inherited or Forged by Fire Cornerstone MoveConsolidate Fragmented Industries at Blitzkrieg Speed Cornerstone MoveNobody Got Rich Watching from the Stands Strategic PatternHigh-Growth Industry as the Only On-Ramp Capital StrategyInsurance Float as Empire Foundation Signature MoveKerkorian: Sell Before the Peak, Never Pick the Bone Clean Relationship LeveragePolitical Access as Wealth Multiplier Not Wealth Creator Cornerstone MoveKeep the Back Door Open on Every Bet Operating PrincipleFrugality as Permanent Competitive Moat Signature MoveWalton: Spy on Every Competitor Then Outwork Them All Signature MoveRockefeller: Silent Desk, Then Swivel-Chair Knockout Cornerstone MoveEquity Stakes for Distribution Leverage Competitive AdvantageCableLabs Royalty-Free Standards Play Cornerstone MoveStock Architecture to Lock Control Competitive AdvantageBlackout as Franchise Leverage Capital StrategyTax-Sheltered Growing Annuity Capital StrategyInsurance Company Capital Over Banks Signature MoveNever Bet the Whole Farm Strategic PatternWarrants as Industry Coordination Currency Decision FrameworkEmpathy as Negotiation Architecture Signature MoveThrow the Keys on the Table Signature MoveOwn a Small Piece of a Winner You Can't Run Operating PrincipleDecentralized Cowboys with Centralized Benchmarks Risk DoctrineWhat If Not as Decision Filter Strategic PatternScale Economics as Survival Doctrine Signature MoveAsk One Sharp Question to Crack Open Intel Signature MoveCash Flow Not Earnings as Currency Cornerstone MoveBuy the System, Pay With Its Own Cash Flow Identity & CultureIntrovert's Edge Through Listening Operating PrincipleDenial as Quality Control Identity & CulturePrincipal or Employee, No Middle Ground Signature MoveInstinct Over Data as Decision Doctrine Cornerstone MoveOne Dumb Step Then Course-Correct at Speed Operating PrincipleCreative Conflict as Decision Engine Decision FrameworkSerendipity as Career Navigation System Cornerstone MoveControl Hardwired or Walk Away Signature MoveHire Sparky Blank Slates Over Credentialed Veterans Competitive AdvantageContrarian Counterprogramming as Market Entry Strategic PatternScreens as Interactive Commerce Surfaces Cornerstone MoveSeize Mismanaged Clay and Sculpt It Capital StrategyCash the Lucky Check Immediately Signature MoveMaterial First, Never the Package Identity & CultureFearlessness Borrowed from Greater Terror Operating PrincipleDrill to Molecular Understanding Before Acting Signature MoveSpin Out What You Build, Never Hoard Scale Signature MoveTorture the Process Until Truth Rings

Primary Evidence

"Herb was accessible to everyone but the press and the social set. He rose before 5:00 a.m., had dinner at 6:00 p.m. sharp, and was in bed by 9:00. One time I was at his Wyoming ranch when a phone call made me half an hour late to the cookhouse. Three courses were lined up at my place setting. Herb looked at me and said, “When I say 6:00, I mean 6:00.” He was smiling, but I took his point. Herb was a model of integrity. After Sumner Redstone broke a promise and engaged another investment bank, he sent Allen & Company a token check for $1 million. I was in Herb’s office when it arrived. He took out his scissors, cut the check into tiny pieces, and returned them to sender. Herb was supremely loyal. He never forgot a birthday and gathered old college pals to dinners and on biking trips. After one friend got sent to Leavenworth for a white-collar crime, Herb visited him twice a year."

Source:Who Is Michael Ovitz?

"Financial theorizing held little interest for Ross Perot, however. Like other billionaires who grew up far from New York, such as John D. Rockefeller Sr. and Warren Buffett, he was skeptical of Wall Street. One of the few investment bankers who impressed Perot was Charles Allen of Allen & Company. Perot paid him the supreme compliment by saying that like his own father, Allen had “the style of the great cattle traders.”27 In the end, Perot awarded the underwriting mandate to the most opti¬ mistic firm of the lot. R. W. Pressprich and Co., which he had never heard of until then, assured him that EDS could be launched at 100 times earnings."

Source:How to Be a Billionaire : Proven Strategies From the Titans of Wealth

"We first met in 1983 at a media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, run by Allen & Company’s namesake founder, Herbert Allen. One of the few get-togethers I looked forward to attending, it was private, with no press, so it gave a me a chance to learn from CEOs outside the cable-TV industry. Mostly, the setting was undeniably peaceful: hiking trails, horseback riding, and fly-fishing against an endless horizon of grassy peaks and picture-perfect valleys."

Source:Born to Be Wired

"It was only a few months after I’d bought into QVC that Enrique Senior, an investment banker at Allen & Company, called to say he had a big idea for me, one that needed total secrecy. He wouldn’t say anything more over the phone and wanted me to come over to his office. Intrigued, I canceled my next meeting and went over there. He took me through a slide presentation about the growing value of QVC and its possibilities—the most exciting of which was that we should… wait for it… buy Paramount."

Source:Who Knew

Appears In Volumes

Who Is Michael Ovitz?How to Be a Billionaire : Proven Strategies From the Titans of Wealth Born to Be Wired Who Knew