Invested

Changing Forever the way Americans Invest.

By Charles Schwab.

In his own words, by the legendary Charles Schwab. A pioneer that democratized investment, capitalism and wealth creation for the individual investor. A textbook case of Clayton Christensen's disruptive innovator.

A fine entrepreneur with deep values, thoroughly committed to his clients and employees. It is an exciting reminder of how far the financial world has evolved through deep crisis, fraud, waves of regulation and deregulation.

1987 was a watershed year to Charles Schwab. Buying back his firm from Bank of America, debt-loaded, going public a few months later and hitting the 1987 October crash a month later must have taken a few years of his life. The recount of those turbulent days and months is a key highlight of the book.

By the time the crashes that followed in 2000, 2001 and 2008 Schwab had developed a fine wisdom, sense of control, inner strength and thicker skin to comfortably weather each storm. He always takes a very long-term view to show how far financial markets have evolved. I felt his latest commercial ‘Persist’ captures the essence of his state of mind.

The book is also a refresher on how challenging merging a small business with a deep-pocket giant can be, or how critical it is to look at culture when deciding on M&A transactions particularly when the founder stays around. The other aspect that hit home was how he goes about strategy: thoroughly stick to a few hard-core themes, i.e. empower the independent investor providing seamless service using technology and get management right.

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