In 1963, Henry Singleton founded Teledyne with $450,000. Over the next two decades, he turned that investment into $1.2 billion, delivering a mind-boggling 20.4% compound annual return to shareholders. "I don't believe all this nonsense about being in business forever," he declared, while revolutionizing corporate strategy through mathematical precision.
While other CEOs followed conventional wisdom, Singleton played three-dimensional chess. He acquired 130 companies when the market valued them cheaply, then pivoted to buying back his own stock when it became the better deal - reducing Teledyne's shares from 88 million to 12 million. Warren Buffett called him "the best operating and capital deployment manager in American business."
His most powerful innovation wasn't in technology - it was in financial engineering. Singleton, a mathematics prodigy who could multiply three-digit numbers in his head, approached business like a complex equation. He bought companies at 6 times earnings, used their cash flow to buy back stock at 6 times earnings, and watched shareholder value multiply exponentially.
Today, as leaders wrestle with capital allocation and growth strategies, Singleton's systematic approach to value creation feels more relevant than ever. His story proves that the greatest business success often comes from seeing patterns others miss.
