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The Art of the Deal
Mar. 26th, 2023 08:31 pmBook Review: In for a penny - A business adventure, by Peter Hargreaves
This was a surprise Christmas present. Although it's not the sort of thing I would naturally have chosen, it was an interesting read, at least in parts. There is a fair amount of material to agree with, but on the whole, given that Hargreaves says business partner Stephen Lansdown is the opposite in most respects to himself, I suspect I would get on more with Lansdown. After a short introduction, Hargreaves takes us through the years since 1981, when Hargreaves Lansdown was formed, initially in a boom (apparently; I don't recall it seeming that way in the North-East) and later through bust years; this book ends at the flotation of the company and is written on the edge of the 2008 financial crisis. What I find interesting is that Hargreaves regards the company mainly as a marketing company; of course, it largely doesn't sell its own products, but resells funds and shares of others. The evolution of commissions and payment structures is interesting, and the warning about past performance is, as always, appropriate, although I feel there are occasions where HL's Wealth Shortlist funds have been historically poor performers and continue to be so; sometimes I feel they argue charges are more important than performance, which taken to its logical conclusion is perverse. Where I diverge is in Hargreaves' unwavering praise of Thatcher, and his apparent point of principle of private sector good, public sector bad. Like all simplistic propositions, he goes on to be self-contradictory, criticising many private sector businesses; I suppose his overriding logic is that bad private sector companies will fail, whilst the public sector cannot; I think I'll just mention train operators and leave it there. It's fortunate that this was written several years before Brexit, because that would probably have been intolerable reading, although it was also written several years before the Woodford debacle, which might have been more eye-opening.
This was a surprise Christmas present. Although it's not the sort of thing I would naturally have chosen, it was an interesting read, at least in parts. There is a fair amount of material to agree with, but on the whole, given that Hargreaves says business partner Stephen Lansdown is the opposite in most respects to himself, I suspect I would get on more with Lansdown. After a short introduction, Hargreaves takes us through the years since 1981, when Hargreaves Lansdown was formed, initially in a boom (apparently; I don't recall it seeming that way in the North-East) and later through bust years; this book ends at the flotation of the company and is written on the edge of the 2008 financial crisis. What I find interesting is that Hargreaves regards the company mainly as a marketing company; of course, it largely doesn't sell its own products, but resells funds and shares of others. The evolution of commissions and payment structures is interesting, and the warning about past performance is, as always, appropriate, although I feel there are occasions where HL's Wealth Shortlist funds have been historically poor performers and continue to be so; sometimes I feel they argue charges are more important than performance, which taken to its logical conclusion is perverse. Where I diverge is in Hargreaves' unwavering praise of Thatcher, and his apparent point of principle of private sector good, public sector bad. Like all simplistic propositions, he goes on to be self-contradictory, criticising many private sector businesses; I suppose his overriding logic is that bad private sector companies will fail, whilst the public sector cannot; I think I'll just mention train operators and leave it there. It's fortunate that this was written several years before Brexit, because that would probably have been intolerable reading, although it was also written several years before the Woodford debacle, which might have been more eye-opening.