Mark Leonard: Raise the Bar: How Hurdle Rates Drive Profitable Investments

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In his 2017 Presidents Letter, Mark Leonard Emphasis discussed maintaining investment discipline and sound decision-making through data-driven approaches. Using historical data to maintain discipline when evaluating deals helps investors to avoid emotional decisions and keeps assumptions grounded in reality. Here’s an excerpt from the letter: I recently worked on a … Read More

Mark Leonard: Great Management – You Don’t Need To Find The Reincarnation Of Peter Drucker On Roller Skates

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CSI recently released a document titled – Selected Investor Questions Received Through September 17, in which CFO Jamal Baksh and Mark Leonard respond to selected investor questions. Mark Leonard’s response to the following two questions highlights the attributes he looks for in great management. Here’s an excerpt from the document: … Read More

Mark Leonard: Opportunities – Bring Out Your Sick, Your Tired, Your Ill, And We’ll Have A Look

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During his latest Annual General Meeting, Constellation’s Mark Leonard discussed how he goes about finding opportunities in which to invest. Here’s some excerpts from the call: Leonard: So lessons from the high-performance conglomerates. I’ll tell you one lesson I’ve learned, and that’s Roy Thompson wrote a book which I love … Read More

Mark Leonard: How About A Thought Experiment

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In his 2015 letter to shareholders, Mark Leonard posed the following thought experiment: How about a thought experiment? Assume attractive return opportunities are scarce and that you are an excellent forecaster. For the same price you can purchase a high profit declining revenue business or a lower profit growing business, … Read More

Mark Leonard: It’s Time To Lower Hurdle Rates

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In his latest letter to shareholders, Mark Leonard has converted from his long held philosophy to maintain his current hurdle rates which means he can now invest all of the cash that his company produces rather than simply paying dividends saying, “Historically, we have paid three special dividends, and for … Read More

Mark Leonard: Dealing With Potential Investments That Don’t Quite Meet Your Hurdle Rate

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In the 2017 Constellation Software President’s Letter, Mark Leonard discussed his process for dealing with potential investments that don’t quite meet their hurdle rate. Here’s an excerpt from that letter: Maintaining Investment Discipline: I recently worked on a large transaction. With every day that passed, I could feel my commitment … Read More