So as we leave Christmas and the new year behind, the biggest question on my mind and I'm picking a lot of other tigers minds is... what am I going to invest in this year. With that addressed let's get into it.
I'll paraphrase a bit but the mighty Warren buffet is on record saying that amazing management will look bad with a terrible product, and terrible management will turn a great product into rubbish. So stocks to invest in today and this year, need to have great products and great management.
Obviously if you follow me you know the holly grail of this for me is $Rocket Lab USA, Inc.(RKLB)$ the management, the products and the execution defies the laws of physics. I believe one of the first articles I wrote here in tiger a couple of years ago laid out why it was a fantastic buy at around $3.50. Now it's around $87 and it will not surprise me if it punches through the $100 market in the months ahead.
But I'm not saying anything more on rocket lab today. Instead I want to focus on two other companies.
The first is $IREN Ltd(IREN)$ . A US company also but its roots are in Australia. The management, joint CEOs and brothers are from Australia. But their products and execution has been flawless, given initial constraints. It's still a misunderstood company, they started out building power infrastructure and data center infrastructure to mine bitcoin. But they never held bitcoin. They sell it as they get it to fund their infrastructure. this year the pivot from bitcoin mining to Ai Will become a reality. Given they are still misunderstood (loving that) and hold a significant competitive advantage in cost and built out infrastructure. Plus a switched on management team, well it's a no brainer for me in 2026 and beyond. It's my next rocket lab, but a lot safer investment than a rocket company.
The last company I want to discuss is a little different. It's called $WISETECH GLOBAL LTD(WTC.AU)$ It has amazing products. It offers software solutions for global logistics. and most of the major global logistics companies use it. I'd actually sold out of it a while back. Looking back on my notes, it was only because I saw larger opportunities elsewhere and it had gone 3x.
Last week I decided to revisit wisetec. Started with the website and the latest annual report. The second pic below is a snap of a page on their website. "Our values are the foundation of our culture". Now that's just utter bullshit. Totally meaningless. sadly the annual report is even worse. I read it from cover to cover so you, my fellow tigers don't have too. To be completely honest. It's all nonsense full of meaningless words with no direction.
Contrast that with a snapshot from the Iren website (first pic) its fact, and it's focused. so it struck me that there was something else going on with wisetech. As the emotional investor, I had to dig deeper. And I did.
Would you like to know more? It gets juicy from here on...
Turns out the founder/ceo and now chairman mite be a naughty boy. There are allegations of sexual misconduct with an employee/ employees. It's all got buried pretty deep, and obviously I was not a fly on the wall. But something definitely went down. The founder/ceo was forced to take some time out, and upon his return, the board of directors resigned. Now there's a new board, loyalists to the founder I'd have to presume.
It just makes sense to me that an entire annual report would be devoted to how important the wisetech team is. The total waffle there, and a total lack of meanful strategic direction. It strikes me as a personal justification for inappropriate behavior at the top.
So I'm not investing in wisetech going forward. Great product for sure. Micheal Jackson was a super pop singer too. But we all know how that ended. I'm not convinced from my research that the captain of the wisetech ship is focused On the basics, let alone the long term.
Obviously this is purely conjecture, based on my limited understanding of what has happened. I could easily be totally wrong. But I'm concluding based on my information, great product, terrible management. Not one I'm personally going to invest in.
So final point I'd like to make. I taught strategic management and organizational behavior for over a decade at a NZ university. This informs my investment decisions. I've also run my own businesses and worked for other businesses in the construction sector for much longer.
Now I'm a full time investor. Leveraging off my intellectual capital. But I am still an educator at heart. Don't get me wrong love to wake up in the morning seeing my portfolio up. But I write articles here in tiger most days, to hopefully help.
Look for great companies with amazing products, fantastic management, and clear execution. Those are the stocks to watch today, and invest in once you are convinced
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