finance
Value investing is more than an investment strategy — it's a fundamental way of thinking about finance. Value investing was developed in the 1920s at Columbia Business School by professors Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, MS '21. The authors of the classic text, Security Analysis, Graham and Dodd were the very pioneers of their field and their security analysis principles provided the first rational basis for investment decisions. Despite the vast and volatile changes in the economy and securities markets during the last several decades, value investing has proven to be the most successful money management strategy ever developed. Value investors' success over the second half of the twentieth century proved not only the validity of the value approach, but its preeminence over even the most widely taught and practiced modern investment theory, which was developed in the 1950s and '60s and remains dominant even today. Our mission today is to promote the study and practice of Graham & Dodd
Jim Engel discusses John W. Bristol & Company's investment strategy, which targets 'corporate athletes'—businesses featuring durable competitive advantages, above-average growth prospects, and holding periods exceeding five years. The firm assesses companies qualitatively using a framework encompassing scale, network effects, and switching costs.
Jim Engle explains that Nike lost its historical monopoly on shelf space and control of distribution due to strategic miscues, such as moving heavily toward direct sales and cutting out wholesale partners, allowing agile newcomers like OnCloud to capture market share.
Jim Engle pushes back against the notion that enterprise software companies are being severely disrupted by AI, arguing that essential systems of record like ServiceNow maintain deep process integration, regulatory compliance, and deterministic outcomes that probabilistic AI cannot easily replace.
Jim Engle details why credit rating agencies Moody's and S&P Global possess irreplaceable asset models, noting that while corporate issuers pay the fees, the deep reliance of auditors and regulators on their legacy ratings creates powerful, high-margin, asset-light moats.
Jim Engle explains how John W. Bristol & Company manages institutional portfolios using a traditional equity and fixed income mix rather than complex illiquid models like the Yale model, avoiding liquidity risks while delivering alpha derived roughly half from stock selection and 30% from asset allocation.