Dear Chairman
Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism
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Narrated by:
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David Drummond
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By:
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Jeff Gramm
About this listen
A sharp and illuminating history of one of capitalism's longest-running tensions - the conflicts of interest among public-company directors, managers, and shareholders - told through entertaining case studies and original letters from some of our most legendary and controversial investors and activists.
Recent disputes between shareholders and major corporations, including Apple and DuPont, have made headlines. But the struggle between management and those who own stock has been going on for nearly a century. Mixing never-before-published and rare, original letters from Wall Street icons - including Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Ross Perot, Carl Icahn, and Daniel Loeb - with masterful scholarship and professional insight, Dear Chairman traces the rise in shareholder activism from the 1920s to today and provides an invaluable and unprecedented perspective on what it means to be a public company, including how they work and who is really in control.
Jeff Gramm analyzes different eras and pivotal boardroom battles from the last century to understand the factors that have caused shareholders and management to collide. Throughout, he uses the letters to show how investors interact with directors and managers, how they think about their target companies, and how they plan to profit. Each is a fascinating example of capitalism at work told through the voices of its most colorful, influential participants.
A hedge fund manager and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, Gramm has spent as much time evaluating CEOs and directors as he has trying to understand and value businesses. He has seen public companies that are poorly run and some that willfully disenfranchise their shareholders. While he pays tribute to the ingenuity of public-company investors, Gramm also exposes examples of shareholder activism at its very worst, when hedge funds engineer stealthy landgrabs at the expense of a company's long-term prospects. Ultimately he provides a thorough, much-needed understanding of the public company-shareholder relationship for investors, managers, and everyone concerned with the future of capitalism.
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Overall
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In this absorbing, smart, and accessible blend of economic and cultural history in the vein of the works of Michael Lewis and Andrew Ross Sorkin, a financial executive and CNBC contributor examines the five most significant stock market crashes in the United States over the past century, revealing how they have defined the nation today.
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A solid telling of crucial history
- By Philo on 06-17-17
By: Scott Nations
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The Great American Stick Up
- Greedy Bankers and the Politicians Who Love Them
- By: Robert Scheer
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Instead of going where other journalists have gone in search of this story - the board rooms and trading floors of the big Wall Street firms - Scheer goes back to Washington, D.C., a veritable crime scene, beginning in the 1980s, where the captains of the finance industry, their lobbyists and allies among leading politicians destroyed an American regulatory system that had been functioning effectively since the era of the New Deal.
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A great telling of an unfortunate part of history
- By Trace on 10-27-20
By: Robert Scheer
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Finish Big
- How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top
- By: Bo Burlingham
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When pioneering business journalist and Inc. magazine editor at large Bo Burlingham wrote Small Giants, it became an instant classic for its original take on a common business problem - how to handle the pressure to grow. Now Burlingham is back to tackle an even more common problem - how to exit your company well. Sooner or later, all entrepreneurs leave their businesses and all businesses get sold, given away, or liquidated.
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Begin with the end in mind
- By D. Hartzell on 02-05-15
By: Bo Burlingham
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The Bank That Lived a Little
- Barclays in the Age of the Very Free Market
- By: Philip Augar
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on unparalleled access to those involved, and told with compelling pace and drama, The Bank That Lived a Little is the story of one of the most familiar names on the British high street since Big Bang in 1986. Philip Augar describes in detail three decades of boardroom intrigue driven by ruthless ambition, grandiose dreams and a desire for wealth. It is a tale of a struggle for long-term supremacy between rival strategies and their adherents.
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Global superstar bankers under light-touch gov
- By Philo on 12-21-18
By: Philip Augar
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Good for the Money
- My Fight to Pay Back America
- By: Bob Benmosche
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2009, at the peak of the financial crisis, AIG - the American insurance behemoth - was sinking fast. It was the peg upon which the nation hung its ire and resentment during the financial crisis: the pinnacle of Wall Street arrogance and greed. When Bob Benmosche climbed aboard as CEO, it was widely assumed that he would go down with his ship. In mere months, he turned things around, pulling AIG from the brink of financial collapse and restoring its profitability.
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Worthwhile, informative, and just short of inspiring
- By Preston on 11-17-21
By: Bob Benmosche
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Too Good to Be True
- The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff
- By: Erin Arvedlund
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Erin Arvedlund, the financial reporter who questioned the amazing returns of Bernie Madoff's hedge funds way back in 2001, traces the life of the infamous swindler and addresses the tough questions surrounding the collapse of his Ponzi scheme.
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Doesn't add much more that a lot of details.
- By Robert on 11-07-10
By: Erin Arvedlund
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Why Wall Street Matters
- By: William D. Cohan
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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William D. Cohan is no knee-jerk advocate for Wall Street and the big banks. He's one of America's most respected financial journalists and the progressive best-selling author of House of Cards. He has long been critical of the bad behavior that plagued much of Wall Street in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, and because he spent 17 years as an investment banker on Wall Street, he is an expert on its inner workings as well.
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An Inch Deep and A Mile Wide
- By Doug Sheridan on 04-26-17
By: William D. Cohan
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Wall Street
- A History, Updated Edition
- By: Charles R. Geisst
- Narrated by: Stephen McLaughlin
- Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Wall Street is an unending source of legend - and nightmares. It is a universal symbol of both the highest aspirations of economic prosperity and the basest impulses of greed and deception. Charles R. Geisst's Wall Street is at once a chronicle of the street itself - from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade built by Peter Stuyvesant - and an engaging economic history of the United States, a tale of profits and losses, enterprising spirits, and key figures that transformed America into the most powerful economy in the world.
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Many books in one; best linking of stories, eras
- By Philo on 03-23-14
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Bought and Paid For
- The Unholy Alliance Between Barack Obama and Wall Street
- By: Charles Gasparino
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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According to business reporter Charles Gasparino, President Obama is faking his outrage at Wall Street, and his calls for new policies to rein in banks that are "too big to fail" are just pabulum. In reality, Obama has climbed into bed with Wall Street CEOs, giving them what they want so they will support his liberal, big-government agenda.
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Revealing and Convincing
- By Walter on 10-24-11
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Fool's Gold
- By: Gillian Tett
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Gillian Tett brings to life in gripping detail how the Morgan team's bold ideas for a whole new kind of financial alchemy helped to ignite a revolution in banking, and how that revolution escalated wildly out of control. The deeply reported and lively narrative takes readers behind the scenes, to the inner sanctums of elite finance and to the secretive reaches of what came to be known as the "shadow banking" world.
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Outstanding narrative about the financial crisis
- By D. Littman on 07-17-09
By: Gillian Tett
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Overhaul
- An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry
- By: Steven Rattner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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This first real look inside Team Obama mixes political warfare and big-business shakeups in equal proportions, and comes from a uniquely informed source. Steve Rattner is not just the man brought in by the president to save the auto industry, he is a former New York Times financial reporter who also earned a place among the top tier of Wall Street's most informed investment bankers and corporate experts.
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Overhaul - A Memoir
- By Roy on 12-05-10
By: Steven Rattner
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Crash Course
- The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster
- By: Paul Ingrassia
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In Crash Course, Ingrassia answers the big questions: Was Detroit's self-destruction inevitable? What were the key turning points? Why did Japanese automakers manage American workers better than the American companies themselves? Ingrassia also describes dysfunctional corporate cultures (even as GM's market share plunged, the company continued business as usual) and Detroit's perverse system of "inverse layoffs" (which allowed union members to invoke seniority to avoid work).
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Contemporary History at Its Best
- By Roy on 04-19-10
By: Paul Ingrassia
What listeners say about Dear Chairman
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sami
- 01-31-19
The Evolution of Corporate America
There are many takeaways in this book, but what fascinated me most is the history of the relation between the corporate management, board of directors and the shareholders. This book gives a great perspective about this.
I believe this is an education text book for new board members and active shareholders.
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- Philo
- 04-16-16
Very worthwhile, fulfills its title
Here is a walk through shareholder activism starting with Benjamin Graham's first activist letter in the late 1920s, through fairly recent times. Many facets of US corporate history and related investor culture are captured in colorful personality-rich stories. These are presented in somewhat distinct phases of about 10-20 years' duration each, as the markets and all players and their tactics have changed. My post-1980s sophistication about this history was limited, so I am grateful for the update in understandable terms and listenable form.
The use of investor letters as the springboard for each story is a novel idea that works well. I applaud the inclusion of the appendix at the end reciting the letters verbatim, which works as a refresher of the book's stories and points out the stark changes in tone and approach that activist shareholders have taken. Having heard this, I feel much better grounded to understand today's corporate headlines, and the dynamics of governance.
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3 people found this helpful
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- asdfasf
- 08-12-16
It would be nice if reprinted letters were chaptered in the back
Really good read for biz types. Great histories. Glad the letters were reprinted it would be nice if they had sub chapters to skip to.
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- John Tuttle
- 03-28-24
Thoughtful commentary but not formatted for audiobook
The shareholder letters in the audiobook should appear before the commentary of each event instead of an unorganized chapter at the end of the book.
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- William Treseder
- 09-27-24
Fascinating stories, solid insights
This was a well-written book. The author knows the investment space so he adds helpful context when appropriate. He did a good job explaining why these letters were selected and how they affected the modern corporate governance scheme.
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- J. L. Morris
- 03-11-17
VERY WONKY BUT EXCELLENT FOR THE RIGHT AUDIENCE
I teach strategic management in a business school, so my interests are relatively specialized, this history fit the bill. For feeling like I can now give a good general history of corporate governance and shareholder activism in the United States, I could rarely find anything better. However, if this isn't your cup 'o tea, well then, read at your own peril!
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1 person found this helpful
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- M. Epstein
- 12-15-16
Great deep dives into specific/key activist situations in history
Really enjoyed the book and the narration is strong. Full letters are at the end to boot.
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1 person found this helpful
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- JJ
- 02-20-18
Corporate Governance for the masses
This is a good, fairly engaging tale of corporate governance and shareholder activism over time. Gramm brings otherwise esoteric topics dealing with terms like 10-Ks and 13-Ds to life through narrative storytelling that’s accessible to your average layman and still engaging for the wonks in the room.
It’s not the definitive bible on such matters, as opinions may vary, but it certainly serves a niche in the biz-lit market.
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- Matthew
- 11-12-18
Excellent all around!
Author selects a rich cross-section of examples through both time and industry, tying each up with illustration against the general backdrop of the time.
Narrator is superb.
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- Chenner
- 09-26-22
Interesting Read
Always curious how activists approach their investments targets. This book demystified a portion of that. I particularly enjoyed the attached actual letters to the Chairmen/CEO/Board.
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