Jamieson

Strategic Concepts & Mechanics

Signature MoveHelicopter View, Signature Page Only

Cornerstone MoveWire Fifty Million on Trust Alone

Competitive AdvantageAtlantic Canada Thinks Small—Exploit That

Signature MoveTechnology Moat or Nothing

Strategic PatternAspiration Interrogation at Every Meeting

Operating PrincipleForest Thinker Needs a Tree Counter

Risk DoctrinePre-Emptive Divestiture as Political Shield

Capital StrategyTrusts Own Everything, Founder Owns Nothing

Strategic PatternSpeed Kills Bureaucracy in Acquisition

Signature MoveFully Deployed, Never Liquid

Cornerstone MoveBuy the Quota, Chop the Shell

Capital StrategySwinging for Multiples Not Singles

Risk DoctrineWindfall Redeployment Not Windfall Savings

Relationship LeverageGenerosity as Network Currency

Operating PrinciplePromise First, Engineer Later

Cornerstone MoveDinner Conversation to Billion-Dollar Platform

Signature MoveLodges, Jets, and Yachts as Deal Magnets

Signature MoveVisionary at the Helm, Operator at the Wheel

Decision FrameworkFacts Then Decision Then Action — No Faltering

Capital StrategyPlow Cash Back Into Acreage

Strategic PatternCapability as the Product

Signature MoveWindows of the Mind Not Product Lists

Relationship LeverageNegotiate From Their Chair First

Decision FrameworkSmall Solution Scaled to Big Problem

Cornerstone MoveOne Building Block Then Mosaic Outward

Cornerstone MoveStock From His Own Hide to Hook the Best Fish

Signature MoveOutwork Them Past Midnight

Signature MoveLet Fresh Ideas Prove Themselves Before Shooting

Operating PrincipleFifty-Foot Rope for Thirty-Foot Drowning

Signature MoveGrab Authority or Lose It

Primary Evidence

"One issue hampering the company was, paradoxically, Risley’s best attribute: his ability to see—and desire to pursue—new opportunities. At Ocean Nutrition he was eager to chase new marine oil applications, and like Colin MacDonald in the early days of Clearwater, Jamieson felt Ocean Nutrition was becoming too scattered and needed to prioritize."

Source:Net Worth - John Risley, Clearwater, and the Building of a Billion-Dollar Empire

"A word here about the company's farsighted arrangement, unique at the time, to gain maximum benefit from stock options as a lure for the best talent without diluting the stock of the shareholders. It came about partly by accident. In the agreement with Lehman Brothers, Tex had ear- marked a part of his personal stock to be used for the express purpose of inducements ( Tex held the largest and controlling share of stock, followed in order by Ash and Jamieson ap- proximately on a 2-1-1 basis ) . Thus Tex would be in a posi- tion to face any future criticism of stock options by share- holders (which has occurred as recently as 1966) by the unanswerable rebuttal that the shares involved were coming out of his own hide. And further, that since he was disposing of his own property in the best interests of the company, the details and terms of each transaction were nobody else's business. The advantages of such flexibility, he could also point out, in baiting the right hook for the right fish, were obvious when compared with the inflexibility of the custom- ary stock option plans which must meet the approval of shareholders."

Source:Someone Has to Make It Happen; The Inside Story of Tex Thornton, the Man Who Built Litton Industries

Appears In Volumes

Net Worth - John Risley, Clearwater, and the Building of a Billion-Dollar Empire Someone Has to Make It Happen; The Inside Story of Tex Thornton, the Man Who Built Litton Industries