# The Outsiders (Will Thorndike)

Eight CEOs judged on where the cash went.

The 2012 Harvard Business Review Press book that measures eight chief executives on a single thing, the long-run return to their shareholders. What they shared was capital allocation: what each did with the cash the business produced, including buying back their own shares when nothing better was on offer. The publisher's page states the thesis in those terms and carries endorsements from Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and Michael Dell.

- Category: Books
- Pricing model: One-Time
- Where it fits: Define & Test Your Thesis, Operate & Grow the Business
- Website: https://store.hbr.org/product/the-outsiders-eight-unconventional-ceos-and-their-radically-rational-blueprint-for-success/10344

## At a Glance

Read it on the far side of the close. It answers what to do with the cash a business makes, which is the question waiting once the search is over.

## What It Costs

$32.00 from the publisher (store.hbr.org, read August 2026), whose own page also tells a buyer to see the retailer for the price; sold in every format at standard retail. Published October 23, 2012.

## Best For

The buyer who has closed, or is about to, and now has to decide what the business does with the cash it throws off. It is not a how-to for buying and it teaches neither search nor diligence.

## Pros and Cons

- Pro: The clearest statement of the decision an owner makes over and over after the close, which is where the cash goes
- Pro: Argues from one measure it names up front, the long-run return per share, so a reader can check the case instead of admiring it
- Pro: Eight self-contained chapters, so it works read one CEO at a time during a search
- Con: Every company in it is a public one far larger than anything a [searcher](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/searcher) buys, so the mechanics do not transfer and only the thinking does
- Con: Published in October 2012 and unrevised, so nothing in it touches how a small acquisition is financed or priced today

## What Searchers Say

A standing fixture on [entrepreneurship-through-acquisition](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/eta) reading lists, and the publisher's own page prints endorsements from Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and Michael Dell. The gap a reader here has to bridge is scale: every subject ran a public company.

## Compared With

- Which owner's book fits where you are, before the close or after it? (https://searchspheresource.com/resources/compare/the-e-myth-revisited-vs-the-outsiders.md)

## Sources

- https://store.hbr.org/product/the-outsiders-eight-unconventional-ceos-and-their-radically-rational-blueprint-for-success/10344
- https://www.amazon.com/Outsiders-Unconventional-Radically-Rational-Blueprint/dp/1422162672

Also on this site: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/category/book.md
Source: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/the-outsiders
Last checked: 2026-08-28

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