Philip Fisher
About
Philip Fisher's 1958 book Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits is one of the founding texts of growth investing.
Fisher pioneered what he called the "scuttlebutt" method: talking to a company's customers, competitors, suppliers, and former employees to understand what management is really like and what the business is really doing — long before that kind of primary research was routine on Wall Street.
Warren Buffett has described his own investing style as roughly 85% Ben Graham and 15% Phil Fisher — Graham gave him the discipline of value, Fisher gave him the appreciation for holding great businesses instead of trading them.
- "Scuttlebutt" — talk to everyone around a company, not just the company itself.
- The right time to sell a truly outstanding growth stock is almost never.
- Great management is not a soft factor. It is arguably the most important factor.
From the record
Historical positions — for education, not a current portfolio.
- Motorola — bought in the 1950s and famously held for the rest of his life.
- Texas Instruments and other innovative electronics firms — long holdings that embodied Fisher's 'buy great businesses and let them run' philosophy.
Read Philip in their own words
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
One of the founding texts of growth investing and the source of the 'scuttlebutt' method.
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Fisher gave value investing its growth half. Buffett has described his own style as roughly 15% Fisher — the part that says a great business is worth holding, not trading.