Philip Fisher

Philip Fisher bought Motorola stock in 1955 and held it until his death in 2004 — nearly 50 years. When he first invested, Motorola was primarily known for car radios and was beginning to develop transistors. Most investors saw a mature electronics company. Fisher, through his legendary "scuttlebutt" research method of talking to employees, competitors, suppliers, and customers, saw something entirely different: a company with extraordinary R&D capabilities and a culture of innovation that would allow it to ride successive waves of technological change.

And ride them it did. Over the following decades, Motorola moved from car radios to transistors to semiconductors to cellular phones, reinventing itself multiple times. Fisher's investment compounded for nearly half a century, generating returns measured in the thousands of percent. His approach — finding innovative companies with excellent management and holding them essentially forever — influenced a generation of investors, most notably Warren Buffett, who credits Fisher (along with Benjamin Graham) as one of the two people who most shaped his investment philosophy.