Coroporate Finance

After viewing the Merloni presentation the common theme I noticed was 1) know your customers and 2) adapting to technology.

As all entrepreneurs, he faced challenges, family issues, deals that did not work out but he was able to study trends and equip his firms with the right staff to keep the firm abreast of competition due to the low barriers in the appliance industry.

Overall, his main message is to stay competitive in the appliance industry - listen to your customers, always seek new ways of doing things be it technology or other analytics and hire good people for your future success.  

From a business view point Sorrell did an excellent job building his company. His innovative creativity did not lie in a form of product development but finding inefficient channels to grow his business via acquisitions. He relied heavily on synergies by consolidating his rapid growth. He showed signs of flexibility to adapt to the environment and in addition took chances. He did not start of as a great manager – simply because all of his processes were outsourced, eventually realizing how inefficient that can be and finally bought in the operations in-house.

Overall, seems like he has a great knack for numbers, knew from the start what he wanted and went out and build his dream.

Arbeloff is a true leader his approach lied in investing-/hiring talent rather than hiring a fleet of employees. His approach was to consistently initiate change in order to succeed in any environment and adjust to any future competition.

His big thing was to listen to the field (teams that operate in the trenches) they have the best Intel on the customers and listening to them will yield a much stronger product that will fulfill a need versus a want.

Intuition is acquired through experience overs ones career. This message was stressed many times through the decision making process undertaken to make Viacom what is today. Redstone past experiences with MGM, Columbia and Fox played a pivotal role to right size opportunities and quick preparation to scale against challenges. His management style was to empower his management team to make decision, which instilled ownership.  For example, when he became aware that the BOD would not make him the face of leadership, he bought in another to lead and take charge. He had the soft skills and humility which was respected by his subordinates and peers.