Quality Investing

Owning the Best Companies for the Long Term

By: Lawrence A. Cunningham, Torkell T. Eide, Patrick Hargreaves

Narrated by: Kenneth Elliott

Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The concept of quality is familiar. People make judgments about it every day. Yet articulating a clear definition of quality is challenging.

The best companies often appear to be characterized by an ineffable something, much like that of people who seem graced by a lucky gene. Think about those of your peers who seem a lot like you but somehow always catch a break. They are not obviously smarter, smoother, richer, or better-looking than you, yet they are admitted to their university of choice, get their dream job, and earn considerable wealth. Try to discern what they have that you don’t, and you are stumped. Chalk it up to fate or plain dumb luck.

Businesses can be similar. For reasons that are not always evident, some end up doing the right things with better results than average. They may not appear to be savvier acquirers, more adept marketers, or bolder pioneers, yet they integrate new businesses better, launch products more successfully, and open new markets with fewer mishaps. Perhaps through some combination of vision, scale, or business philosophy, these companies uncannily come out ahead.

In our view, three characteristics indicate quality. These are strong, predictable cash generation; sustainably high returns on capital; and attractive growth opportunities.

©2016 Harriman House (P)2019 Harriman House

Great book

Great insights on pitfalls and research. Would be very interested in a second edition too!

Great book, terrible narration

Re-narrate this book. The narrator is too fast and mispronounces too many words. Thanks. Otherwise, great content.

Person reading speaks too fast and is boring

Person reading speaks too fast and is boring

I think the information is good but couldn’t get past the speaker

Good book, mediocre reading

It’s a pretty good book, many good ideas, although it could have been somewhat better organized. The audio book format was poor in that it seemed hastily read, which made it unnecessarily difficult to follow at times, despite the content not being difficult. The reading emphasis was frequently off and there was mispronouncing due to apparent haste. IMO the audio should be redone. The book deserves better.

Too fast reading.

Reading was too fast for me.
Needed more tone variations.
Needed to get the feeling reader talking to me telling me something. Be more engaging.

Bons Conseils, Lecture Insupportable

La prononciation de cet homme est très irritant, qui rend la lecture difficile. Parfois il est un peu difficile à comprendre et l'anglais est ma langue native. En particulier, son emphase rend une thèse que je pense soit bien écrite banale et confuse.

Annoyingly Useless Book

This book is a speed session in what makes a good company. Cash flow, profits, stability, etc. D-U-H!. And what it totally lacks is how to identify a good company to buy -- how to determine whether the quality already is priced into the stock and what is the company's value?

To make matters worse, the narrator appeared to have no understanding of what he was reading. The number of grossly mispronounced words -- sometimes consistently mispronounced -- was astounding. The narrator seemed to be trying to compensate for his apparent lack of understanding by reading as fast as he could, making the experience one to try to forget.