The Intelligent Investing Podcast - #71: Brian Langis; Brookfield Asset Management; Why The Modern Shareholder Activist Is Inferior To Cultural Activism

#71: Brian Langis; Brookfield Asset Management; Why The Modern Shareholder Activist Is Inferior To Cultural Activism

10/30/19 • 130 min

Show Summary

Happy day before Halloween! This is a very special episode of The Intelligent Investing Podcast. I bring Brian Langis back on the show to discuss Brookfield Asset Management which we have discussed before. We go into some of the slides from Brookfield Investor Day 2019 on both Brookfield Asset Management and also some of their subs such as Brookfield Business Partners. We discuss larger trends, low and negative interest rates, valuations, and culture.

Cultural Activism

We spend quite a while on the cultural activism going on at Brookfield Business Partners led by their COO, Denis Turcotte. I had the pleasure of meeting him at the Brookfield Investor Day and noticed he wasn't just giving lip service to culture but actually doing it and knew he didn't learn this from business school. Many of you don't know this but I have a 10 year background in transformational coaching and a 7 year background specifically on organizational culture- not just understanding it but actually empowering organizations to elevate it. Brookfield Business Partners is actually working with businesses to elevate culture not just talk about it and no surprise, profits go up!

Better Culture Equals Greater Profits

One of the things I have discussed with my colleagues John King and Scott Forgey is that greater culture equates to greater profits. John King is the inventor of Tribal Leadership which is the most cutting edge and leading cultural transformation technology on the planet. Scott Forgey is working with me on empowering organizations to elevate their culture, except we are focusing on public companies. When an organization goes from what is known as Stage 2 to Stage 4, profits go up by an average of 300% - 500%.

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Connect With Eric Schleien

Visit Eric Schleien’s Podcast
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Connect With Brian Langis

Visit Brian Langis' BLOG
Visit Brian Langis' SEEKING ALPHA
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Show Summary

Cultural Activism

Better Culture Equals Greater Profits

Relevant Links For This Episode

Connect With Eric Schleien

Visit Eric Schleien’s Podcast
Visit Eric Schleien’s Twitter
Visit The Intelligent Investing Podcast’s Twitter
Like The Intelligent Investing Podcast on Facebook
Follow Eric Schleien on Facebook
Visit Granite State Capital Management’s Website
Follow Eric Schleien on Instagram

Connect With Brian Langis

Visit Brian Langis' BLOG
Visit Brian Langis' SEEKING ALPHA
Visit Brian Langis' LINKEDIN
Visit Brian Langis's FACEBOOK
Visit Brian Langis' TWITTER

Previous Episode

#70: Glenn Surowiec; Index Investing Bubble; General Electric

In this episode of The Intelligent Investing Podcast, Eric Schleien and Glenn Surowiec discuss the Index Investing Bubble as well as discuss General Electric (GE) which has been going through a massive restructuring.

Glenn manages SMA's through GDS Investments which he founded in 2012. From 2001 to 2012, he worked for Alsin Capital Management, Inc. as an equity research analyst (2001-2003), co-portfolio manager (2003-2008), and portfolio manager (2008-2012). Before joining ACM, Glenn worked for Enron Corp. as a derivatives structuring manager, and for Commerce Bancorp (now TD Bank) as a real estate credit analyst.

He currently serves as an advisory board member of Value Conferences, an online-only conference featuring some of the most prestigious value investors across the globe.

Contact Eric Schleien

If you’d like to connect with me Eric directly, he always loves connecting with listeners of the Intelligent Investing Podcast on his personal Twitter. You can also connect with Eric on Facebook, Instagram, or through his personal website. To follow The Intelligent Investing Podcast, click here.

Disclosure: Eric's firm Granite State Capital Management manages SMA's. None of his clients own GE stock. That could always change in the future without notice.

Contact Glenn Surowiec

Glenn can be reached by email: [email protected] OR he can be reached via his website.

You can read Glenn's most recent letter to his investors, here.

Next Episode

#72: Jeremy Raper | Credit-Based Equity Investing | Japanese Stocks | Shinoken | Gan | Nio

Summary In this episode of The Intelligent Investing Podcast, Eric Schleien and Jeremy Raper sit down to discuss everything from Jeremy's personal growth into a 'credit-based equity investor' to specific long (Shinoken, Gan) and short (Nio) ideas and how he generates ideas like these. Discussion of investment philosophy - Pursue a methodology I term 'credit-based equity investing, or 'thinking like a creditor but applied to stocks' - It means using the skeptical, 'downside before upside' mentality of a creditor to pick stocks, rather than the typical equity mindset (which emphasises growth/blue sky/optimism) - Method derives from time spent in Japan, where due to decades of low rates/QE the fundamental discipline of credit analysis structurally disappeared from the market - This created an opportunity to identify investment ideas using a credit skill-set - However, the true opportunity lay not in applying those tools to fixed income/bond markets but to equity markets, given the excess liquidity in the system provided by QE/central banks meant typical bankruptcy restructurings were not common - Instead, the equity market was serially used to recapitalize troubled/distressed issuers - This pattern is now being replicated, to an extent, in other markets like Europe and the US (since these markets are, from a monetary perspective, looking more and more like Japan) Stocks we discussed Shinoken (Tokyo listed, 8909) - Small cap Japanese part real estate developer, part RE management/recurring revenue stream business unfairly sold down last year t0