In a 1992 interview with Barron’s, Glenn Greenberg (formerly of Chieftain Capital, now Brave Warrior) outlined an approach to investment which he has practiced for more than 25 years. The quote below captures a simple, effective approach:

Q: You call yourselves value investors. You — and, of course, the rest of the world — are looking to buy the proverbial dollar’s worth of assets for 50 cents. But you’re also looking for good businesses.

Greenberg: That’s correct. I would emphasize that we are looking for good businesses where the fortunes of those businesses don’t turn on slight changes in GNP statistics, where there is substantial free cash generated and put into the hands of extremely capable managements which will not go out and spend that money foolishly by overexpanding plant capacity, or paying too much for an acquisition to get into somebody else’s difficult business…we look for people who have a vision of building something, building their company into a great business.