Credit Suisse

Strategic Concepts & Mechanics

Operating PrincipleControl Volume and Cost, Not Price

Cornerstone MoveDouble Down When the Deal Looks Dead

Signature MoveAbsentee Landlord Who Sleeps Till Nine

Signature MoveThrowing-Up-in-the-Shower Test

Decision FrameworkHumble Offices as Trust Signal

Risk DoctrineRepeat Business Over New Bets

Competitive AdvantageStay Through the Cycle's Bottom

Identity & CultureFamily Business Feel at Institutional Scale

Capital StrategyBold Thinking Cheap Wallet

Relationship LeverageCold Calls as Deal Origination Engine

Strategic PatternChaos as the Buy Signal

Cornerstone MoveBet on the Jockey, Forget the Horse

Signature MoveReady Shoot Aim into the Fog

Cornerstone MoveWalk the Deal Around the Floor

Signature MoveDinner with the Waitstaff Watching

Signature MoveRaise Your Hand for the Grunt Work

Cornerstone MoveClose Every Circle Until Control Is Complete

Competitive AdvantageFashion Signature as Margin Multiplier

Signature MovePaternalistic Covenant With the Valley

Strategic PatternSubcontractor Apprenticeship as Espionage

Strategic PatternLow Cost Many Models Flood Strategy

Identity & CultureOrphan Hunger as Permanent Engine

Cornerstone MoveBuy the Myth Then Rebuild It From the Product Up

Risk DoctrineCash Fortress Before the Storm Hits

Identity & CultureSilicon Valley Peers Not Italian Peers

Operating PrincipleBring Production Home When Quality Fails

Signature MoveEvery Euro Saved Is an Extra Euro in Profit

Risk DoctrineOwnership Separated From Management

Competitive AdvantageClosed Valley as Loyalty Fortress

Signature MoveMove Before Being Overwhelmed

Cornerstone MoveHostile Raid to Swallow the Whole Animal

Capital StrategyWall Street Listing as Credibility Weapon

Signature MovePocket Recorder on the Nightstand

Signature MoveFactory Floor at Five AM, Never the Office

Primary Evidence

"Early in 1989, I went on the payroll of NGP even though I was still a student. David Albin was on board as the leader of the team based in Greenwich. Working there, too, was a former managing director at First Boston (now Credit Suisse) named R. Gamble Baldwin. Late in the summer, around the same time that the first Equitable meeting was coming together, Richard had called Gamble after reading an Institutional Investor magazine article that rated him the number-one analyst covering the natural gas industry. “How would you like to retire from the banking game, Gamble?” Richard had asked on a cold call to him. “I have these guys, and we may get this money, and I think they’ll need an adult around them.” I think Richard just liked the shock value in cold calling folks."

Source:The Fastest Tortoise - Winning in Industries I Knew Nothing About—A Life Spent Figuring It Out

"On March 4, 1995, he launches a "hostile" takeover bid, i.e., not agreed upon with the management, worth 1.8 trillion lire to take control of US Shoe. The offer is financed for 1.45 billion dollars by Credit Suisse. This was the big move that Leonardo had in mind when he decided to list his Luxottica in New York. A raider's move, some compare it to Gordon Gekko from the film Wall Street, who reveals his predator nature to the financial world. The goal is to take over LensCrafters and sell off the other divisions of the American conglomerate, breaking it up into parts and selling them to the highest bidder. The Americans aren't having it, they counterattack using all the "poison pills" they have at their disposal to block the advancing Italian. In Ohio, where LensCrafters is based, they call it the eyewear war."

Source:Leonardo Del Vecchio

Appears In Volumes

The Fastest Tortoise - Winning in Industries I Knew Nothing About—A Life Spent Figuring It Out Leonardo Del Vecchio