Rating: 
Summary: Good Start in Finding a Technology Stock
Review: (This review concerns the audio version.) The Gorilla Game provides good, easy to follow advice in helping a novice find technology related stocks. Basically this book provides the fundamentals in chosing any stock. The tapes are well worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Reverse Engineering to Invest in Intel, Cisco and Microsoft
Review: A popular pastime for the past 50 years (and possibly before that) has been to look at the stocks that would have made you the most money in the last 10 or 20 years and devise an investment approach to find the next ones going forward that will do as well or better. I have lost count of how many books I have read that have taken this approach.I found the Gorilla Game to be refreshingly above the pack in this area. The authors do an excellent job of describing some of the ways that technologies get adopted, when the stocks do well (and when they don't), and when to buy and sell stocks in technology companies. They also devise a fairly detailed, somewhat risk-controlled investment process, and detail how it would have done in a number of case histories. From the backward-looking perspective, the book is solid. The weakness of such backward looking methods shows up in their new material in the revised edition (1999) on the Internet. Although some aspects of their model apply to the Internet, many do not. They are left needing to vaguely explain how so much money was made so quickly in Internet stocks. Their explanation is actually pretty solid, but they never quite come out and say that their methodology will not get you all of the fast-growing stocks in technology. They needed not be defensive. No methodology is perfect. The main weakness of this one is that is designed around semiconductors, software, and computers. The technology patterns can look a lot different in future technologies. For example, what will happen with companies like Gemstar that lead in new television technologies that could disrupt the Internet for direct marketing? The reason this point is important is that the barriers to switching are higher in the technologies studied here than in many other areas. If you get into a low cost of switching area (like business to consumer marketing on the Internet), you could invest in an industry leader and still lose your shirt. Although the book acknowledges these issues, it probably doesn't create a substantial enough warning. The book is aimed at the medium knowledge investor (about the markets and technology). I hope they bring out a more advanced version. They decided not to go into specialized semiconductors like analog devices where enormous profits may lie in the future, because of concerns about not going over the heads of readers. A lot of the best run technology companies with enormous growth potential in markets with high bariers to competitors were not discussed in this book. I am sure most readers would be willing to spend some time learning about these other markets in order to make enormous gains. Despite my quibbles, this is a fine book that will help all but those who are already quite knowledgeable about technology companies and technology investing. Good luck in capturing those irresistible gains in the future! Perhaps you will be the first person you know to identify the next irresistible growth enterprise!
Rating:
Summary: This is the key to understanding the new rules of the game.
Review: A superb guide to understanding the new business world. The reader will gain an immediate competetive advantage and the non-readers take a big risk in loosing out. It should be read.
Rating:
Summary: Required Reading for Individual Tech Investor
Review: As an active investor in tech stocks (information technology), I highly recommend this book to other investors who are already in tech stocks or are considering it. The book explains in laymans terms the dynamics of the technology marketplace . The information it provides will assist you in how to differenciate each tech company from another in regards to it's particular role in its market, and the investment strategy you should pursue (short/intermediate/long term). I liked the book so much, I'm ordering the cassette as well to wring every ounce of investment advice I can get out of it.
Rating:
Summary: A Primer on Primates
Review: At first glance a high tech stock investment guide that relies critically on you being able to tell the difference between gorillas, monkeys and chimps appears unlikely to be a serious money maker. Yet if you had followed the investment philosophy outlined in Geoffrey Moore's Gorilla Game at the beginning of this decade, you could have turned $10,000 into a couple of million dollars. The stock market has attracted no end of charlatans and snake oil salesmen with a plethora of advice on how to invest and grow rich, ranging from complex mathematical techniques such as chaos theory to fairly simple advice such as buy stocks in companies you know and like. In its simplest form, most of the advice boils down to "buy low, sell high." though it is usually couched in more cultured language such as "buy at the peak of a stock's dividend yield ratio, and sell at its trough." Geoffrey Moore and his co-authors, Johnson and Kippola, have no use for such language. In a straight-forward and entertaining book, they outline how some high tech companies grow exponentially to dominate the segments in which they participate, how they become gorillas. Generally, the authors provided a lay-man's explanation of what has recently come to be known in economics as the Theory of Increasing Returns. Some of the high tech companies that best epitomize this theory are Microsoft, Intel, Cisco Systems and IBM in its heyday. These companies were able to get their proprietary architectures accepted as the standard (sometimes completely by luck), and they were smart enough to exploit this initial standardization and the high switching costs it entailed to gain market share rapidly and dominate their industries. These companies are the ones Moore calls Gorillas. In addition to the Gorilla, who is the dominant leader in a segment, we also have the Chimp (the challenger) and the Monkey (the follower). The chimp had a shot at being a gorilla but didn't make it. Unable to get over this, he limps along muttering "I could have been a contender." The example Moore brings up of a chimp is IBMs OS/2 operating system. The monkey has no such hang-ups and essentially mimics the gorillas product. An example would be AMD with its Intel-like chips. As Moore, and his co-authors point out, a monkey lives or dies on execution. From an investment strategy perspective, the rules are simple. If the company is a gorilla, buy the stock. If the company is a chimp, stay away from its stock. If the company is a monkey, it is probably a good trading stock (buy at the lows, sell at the highs). Perhaps the best part of using the gorilla game as an investment strategy is that it is a low maintenance strategy, letting you make money without biting your fingernails on a daily basis. The hard part is finding new gorillas--in many sectors they may never develop.
Rating:
Summary: Suggestions for Finding the Stock to Make You a Millionaire!
Review: Everyone has wondered how they could have latched onto a stock that would have turned a few thousand dollars into over a million. In recent years, EMC, Cisco, and Microsoft provided such opportunities. Yet few bought and held those stocks to get the full benefit of the ride. In this book, you will find some ideas for locating the next stocks that could do this for you. Keep in mind that the odds are long against you though. A lot of serendipity is involved. A popular pastime for the past 50 years (and possibly before that) has been to look at the stocks that would have made you the most money in the last 10 or 20 years and then to devise an investment approach to find the next ones going forward that will do as well or better. I have lost count of how many books I have read that have taken this approach. I found the Gorilla Game to be refreshingly above the pack in this area. The authors do an excellent job of describing some of the ways that technologies get adopted, when the stocks do well (and when they don't), and when to buy and sell stocks in technology companies. They also devise a fairly detailed, somewhat risk-controlled investment process, and detail how it would have done in a number of case histories. From the backward-looking perspective, the book is solid. The weakness of such backward looking methods shows up in their new material in the revised edition (1999) on the Internet. Although some aspects of their model apply to the Internet, many do not. They are left needing to vaguely explain how so much money was made so quickly in Internet stocks (before they began to plummet to nothing in March 2000). Their explanation is actually pretty solid, but they never quite come out and say that their methodology will not get you all of the fast-growing stocks in technology. I doubt if any methodology could do that for you. They needed not be defensive. No methodology is perfect. The main weakness of this one is that is designed around semiconductors, software, and computers. The technology patterns can look a lot different in future technologies. For example, what will happen with companies like Gemstar that lead in new television technologies that could disrupt the Internet for direct marketing? The reason this point is important is that the barriers to switching are higher in the technologies studied here than in many other areas. If you get into a low cost of switching sector (like business to consumer marketing on the Internet), you could invest in an industry leader and still lose your shirt. Although the book acknowledges these issues, it probably doesn't create a substantial enough warning. The book is aimed at the medium knowledge investor (about the markets and technology). I hope they bring out a more advanced version. They decided not to go into specialized semiconductors like analog devices where enormous profits may lie in the future, because of concerns about not going over the heads of readers. A lot of the best run technology companies with enormous growth potential in markets with high bariers to competitors were not discussed in this book. I am sure most readers would be willing to spend some time learning about these other markets in order to make enormous gains. Despite my quibbles, this is a fine book that will help all but those who are already quite knowledgeable about technology companies and technology investing. Good luck in capturing those irresistible gains in the future! Perhaps you will be the first person you know to identify the next irresistible growth enterprise that creates over a thousand to one gain! I hope you do. May you be that one person in one hundred who outperforms the market over a lifetime. Otherwise, I suggest you play the odds and buy indexed mutual funds. John Bogle's book, Common Sense about Mutual Funds, will be very helpful to you in this regard.
Rating:
Summary: Suggestions for Finding the Stock to Make You a Millionaire!
Review: Everyone has wondered how they could have latched onto a stock that would have turned a few thousand dollars into over a million. In recent years, EMC, Cisco, and Microsoft provided such opportunities. Yet few bought and held those stocks to get the full benefit of the ride. In this book, you will find some ideas for locating the next stocks that could do this for you. Keep in mind that the odds are long against you though. A lot of serendipity is involved. A popular pastime for the past 50 years (and possibly before that) has been to look at the stocks that would have made you the most money in the last 10 or 20 years and then to devise an investment approach to find the next ones going forward that will do as well or better. I have lost count of how many books I have read that have taken this approach. I found the Gorilla Game to be refreshingly above the pack in this area. The authors do an excellent job of describing some of the ways that technologies get adopted, when the stocks do well (and when they don't), and when to buy and sell stocks in technology companies. They also devise a fairly detailed, somewhat risk-controlled investment process, and detail how it would have done in a number of case histories. From the backward-looking perspective, the book is solid. The weakness of such backward looking methods shows up in their new material in the revised edition (1999) on the Internet. Although some aspects of their model apply to the Internet, many do not. They are left needing to vaguely explain how so much money was made so quickly in Internet stocks (before they began to plummet to nothing in March 2000). Their explanation is actually pretty solid, but they never quite come out and say that their methodology will not get you all of the fast-growing stocks in technology. I doubt if any methodology could do that for you. They needed not be defensive. No methodology is perfect. The main weakness of this one is that is designed around semiconductors, software, and computers. The technology patterns can look a lot different in future technologies. For example, what will happen with companies like Gemstar that lead in new television technologies that could disrupt the Internet for direct marketing? The reason this point is important is that the barriers to switching are higher in the technologies studied here than in many other areas. If you get into a low cost of switching sector (like business to consumer marketing on the Internet), you could invest in an industry leader and still lose your shirt. Although the book acknowledges these issues, it probably doesn't create a substantial enough warning. The book is aimed at the medium knowledge investor (about the markets and technology). I hope they bring out a more advanced version. They decided not to go into specialized semiconductors like analog devices where enormous profits may lie in the future, because of concerns about not going over the heads of readers. A lot of the best run technology companies with enormous growth potential in markets with high bariers to competitors were not discussed in this book. I am sure most readers would be willing to spend some time learning about these other markets in order to make enormous gains. Despite my quibbles, this is a fine book that will help all but those who are already quite knowledgeable about technology companies and technology investing. Good luck in capturing those irresistible gains in the future! Perhaps you will be the first person you know to identify the next irresistible growth enterprise that creates over a thousand to one gain! I hope you do. May you be that one person in one hundred who outperforms the market over a lifetime. Otherwise, I suggest you play the odds and buy indexed mutual funds. John Bogle's book, Common Sense about Mutual Funds, will be very helpful to you in this regard.
Rating:
Summary: Will transform forever the way you look at equity investing!
Review: For those who have been followers of Moore's best-selling "chasm theory," but never made the connection between companies who crossed the chasm and great investment opportunities, "Gorilla Game" will help you cross the "investment chasm" from uncertainty to educated action - from speculation to logic. Even if you've never heard of market chasms, or bowling alleys, or tornadoes, "Gorilla Game" is a must read if you are even thinking about investing in a company. The authors lay out a step-by-step approach that helps you understand why a company is doing well; evaluate its chances to dominate a market segment; and most importantly, decide whether it deserves your hard-earned cash. In approachable terms, easy enough for the novice, yet thought-provoking for the savvy investor, "Gorilla Game" shares its methodology with the reader and compels you to take action. Moreover, the authors put theory into practice by creating a hypothetical portfolio based on the Gorilla Game principals for all the world to observe The Game as it plays out.
Read the "Gorilla Game." It is one of the best investments you'll ever make!
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy another tech stock until you read his analyses
Review: Geoffrey develops an excellent model for understanding and evaluating technology trends and companies. There are many excellent analyses of why the best tech companies have the advantages they do and command the prices they do. The case studies of Oracle and Cisco tie it all together and give the reader a chance to develop these tech evaluation skills for themselves. At the end he tells how to research for these companies and makes some predications of current and future "Gorilla Games"
Rating:
Summary: Great insight even for the non-investor
Review: Great insight into what makes a Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, or other high-tech monster. Very instructive for spotting trends even if you are not into investing. Sadly funny (in hindsight) closing remarks, however, when mentioning criteria for the gorilla-game theory to work: "...you need equity markets which have... high legal integrity... in the realms of ethics and legal integrity, US markets lead the world in policing their own ranks...". In light of the many recent financial scandals I'm sure the authors will rephrase this in the next edition.
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