Capital: The Story of Long-Term Investment Excellence

Rating:
Summary: Great subject, tedious writing
Review: Capital Group is a phenomenal organization and I was very much looking forward to reading the book. Unfortunately, the book is very poorly written and is just plain dull. The footnotes (half of the book!) are silly at times in their excruciating level of irrelevant detail. Very little tangible information, in my opinion, on the actual subject of investing at Capital.

Rating:
Summary: For students & admirers only!
Review: I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book - it would be the first time that anything comprehensive has been written on the organization. I tried to navigate my way through all of the footnotes and irrelevancies but without much success. There seems to be no real structure to the book. Sure; the overriding message is that the organization is vastly successful, and the author praises Capital throughout. Frankly I'm surprised that the editors didn't intervene and reformat the entire thing from start to finish. A disappointing read - I can only liken it to a textbook without a curriculum, and oh-so disjointed. Oh and BTW - I work here too!

Rating:
Summary: Tedious at times, but a worthwhile read
Review: I read this book on the advice of my investment advisor. The first half was tedious but the second half was packed with valuable information about a great company. This is stuff that I can use in my own business, and I don't regret the time that it took to wade through the early chapters.

Rating:
Summary: Every finance student should read this.
Review: I strongly recommend this book to all finance students. The story of Capital is truly unique. You will learn a great deal from this comprehensive book.

Rating:
Summary: Capital: The Story of Long-Term Investment Excellence
Review: In Capital: The Story of Long-Term Investment Excellence, Charles Ellis takes you inside this elite investment firm and shows you the people, practices, concepts, and values that have brought this company consistent success

Rating:
Summary: A great subject, ruined by a poor book
Review: It's unfortunate that a subject so deserving of careful attention and exposition as Capital Group, with its second-to-none long term investment record, was recorded by a writer like Ellis. Few people know the investment management business as well as Charles Ellis, and evidently that fact exempted Ellis from any editing whatsoever at John Wiley and Sons. The book is replete with foot notes, asides, and other minutiae that add nothing whatsoever to the story. In fact, many of the footnotes, which often come 3 to 4 to a page and fill up 2/3 of the white space on the page, do not even deal with matters being discussed in the text at the time. Consider this footnote from page 119, in a section describing the introduction of 12b-1 fees:

"37.) While studying for a joint MBA/JD degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Paul Haaga worked part time at Wellington for Jack Bogle--for $6.00 an hour--writing prospectuses and shareholder reports. After graduation, he went to the SEC in Washington from 1974 to 1977, and then joined Dechert, Price & Rhoades, where he became a partner. In 1985, when Jim Ratzlaff heard that Haaga might leave, he called and said, 'If you ever decide to leave private practice, come talk with us at Capital.' With two brothers already living in Los Angeles, the idea of living on the West Coast was 'not out of the question,' and Haaga joined Capital in 1985."

Again, this footnote, reproduced in its entirety, is from a section describing the introduction of 12b-1 fees. Prior to this point in the book, we have not even been introduced to Paul Haaga yet, so we don't know why his career path is relevant to the discussion of 12b-1 fees (it isn't). We are left to wonder, why did the estimable Mr. Ellis choose to include this fact at this point in the book? Does he think that we are so interested in the career path of this particular individual at Capital that we could not wait to read about it 50 pages later?

I could cite another dozen examples of unnecessary footnotes, egregious spelling and factual mistakes, and long asides that distract from the narrative and key points that Mr. Ellis is trying to expose us to, but then I would be subjecting readers to the same level of tedious minutiae as Mr. Ellis. This book is excrutiatingly difficult to read, a real shame given its subject. Ignore the glowing dust jacket reviews from John Neff, Peter Bernstein, Jack Meyer, Abby Joseph Cohen (!), and George J. W. Goodman--these folks are surely old friends of Mr. Ellis, and they clearly could not have finished such a tedious book. They have better things to do.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT BOOK!
Review: This is a must-have for anyone in the finance field. Capital is one of the great companies. Charles Ellis has done a great service to the community by publishing this book. Highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Great Subject...Lousy Book!
Review: What a great story! Capital Group has one of the most amazing long-term performances and is one of the most unique organizations in the industry! But this book just stinks. I can barely believe the Charlie Ellis wrote this. It's completely disjointed. There's no structure at all. It's like they just published his notes. He skips across generations within a single paragraph. He contradicts himself. About 150 of the 300 pages is fluff and adds nothing to the story. About 1/3 of EVERY page is footnotes that add nothing. He references chapters within the same chapter. It's just terrible. It's obvious the publisher was just in a hurry to get the book out to make a buck off the mutual fund scandal before the hype died off. How ironic that Capital Group takes a long term approach, launching new funds against the tide, while the people at Wiley (by launching this book before it was ready) have shown themselves to be a bunch of short-sighted money grubbers.