Why Capital Allocation Is the Most Important Skill
Capital allocation is the single most important job a CEO has, and almost nobody talks about it. Not on CNBC, not in business school, not at dinner parties. People talk about product vision, leadership style, corporate culture – all fine things. But when a company generates a billion dollars in free cash flow, the decision of what to do with that money will determine shareholder returns for the next decade. Get it right, and you create enormous wealth. Get it wrong, and you destroy it – quietly, invisibly, one bad acquisition at a time.