Mike Milken

Strategic Concepts & Mechanics

Competitive AdvantageTax Arbitrage as Structural Weapon

Operating PrincipleProfessional Manager Decay Across Generations

Risk DoctrineNever Cut Back a Committed Deal

Signature MoveMilken: Four-Thirty AM Cathedral-Builder With No Office

Capital StrategyVenture Capital Masquerading as Debt

Signature MovePeltz: Spittle-on-the-Check Persistence from Near-Broke

Signature MovePerelman: Borrowed $1.9M to a Boeing 727 in Seven Years

Cornerstone MoveManufactured Credibility from Thin Air

Decision FrameworkContra-Thinking as Default Mental Operating System

Identity & CultureForced Savings as Loyalty Handcuffs

Cornerstone MoveCash Flow Over Earnings as the Only Truth

Cornerstone MoveBuy the Core, Sell the Pieces, Erase the Debt

Signature MoveKingsley: Mount Everest Desk, Twenty-Year Sounding Board

Signature MoveIcahn: Wrestling-a-Ghost Negotiation Until the Last Penny

Cornerstone MoveOwner's Equity as the Non-Negotiable Discipline

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

Primary Evidence

"Milken kept his group cloistered. He demanded that his people shun publicity, as he did. He was convinced there was no upside—“Mike would always say, ‘You can’t make a dime off publicity,’ ” Steve Wynn recalled—and there was considerable downside. If his people started seeing themselves in print, he once commented to this reporter, they would get their heads turned, they would think they were famous. “They won’t work as well. I want them there at four or four-thirty, ready to work, until eight o’clock at night. That’s what we do, that’s our responsibility. I don’t want them to think of what’s outside.”"

Source:Predator's Ball

"His issues with Uncle Sam notwithstanding, what I know is that Mike Milken proved his thesis that non-investment-grade bonds were undervalued relative to investment-grade bonds. And he helped TCI raise a lot of money perfectly legally, just as he had done with Ted Turner and many other U.S. companies. After we started dealing with Milken, we didn’t have to do as many road shows anymore."

Source:Born to Be Wired

"He had exhausted even the financially elastic mind of Mike Milken to find another acquisition for TBS. With the takeover threats from Kirk Kerkorian and others still fresh in his mind, and consolidation and vertical integration going on around him, Ted felt it was time to think seriously about joining forces with somebody."

Source:Born to Be Wired

Appears In Volumes

Predator's Ball Born to Be Wired