What do activist investors do with struggling or unprofitable companies? There is a playbook which involves a number of steps: 1) cutting costs by layoffs or divesting from unprofitable ventures, 2) bringing in new leadership with a profit-driven approach to management, 3) selling assets to raise revenues and pay off debts to lower interest payments, 4) make new revenue streams, 5) create efficiencies, like automations, to lower operating costs, 6) remove redundancies, 7) fire poor performers, 8) renegotiate supplier contracts to be more favorable, and 9) return money to shareholders through dividends or stock buybacks.

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The best investors do this again and again with companies and LevelFields tracks them with our software. This process is all explained in our new video.

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Think of the United States federal government as the largest unprofitable business in the world with $4.9 trillion in annual revenues, $6.75 trillion in annual expenses, and $36.6 trillion in debt.

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Seeing the U.S. that way puts the Trump/Musk playbook for Uncle Same in perspective. It's largely the same as the activist investors LevelFields tracks. DOGE is engaged in cutting costs, eliminating redundancies across agencies, creating efficiencies, and terminating employees. Trump brought in an entirely new leadership team to run the business units (agencies). Trump is renegotiating contracts with suppliers (other countries) and companies through tariffs and incentives. He's cutting spending in NATO and asking the EU to pay more to cut costs for the U.S.. The idea of selling $5 million Visas to those seeking to live in the U.S. and increasing exports of natural resources like oil, gas, coal, etc. are ways to increase revenues to make the federal government profitable. They are cancelling building leases (expenses) and selling off buildings to pay off debts. And Trump/Musk have recently floated the idea of returning savings as tax refunds to the American public just as activist investors return cash to shareholders via dividends.
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You don't need to like the plan or the people behind it or the way it is being deployed. There's certainly plenty to debate there, but that's not the sandbox we play in. Our role is to help investors invest more successfully, and doing that requires assessing how government actions affect markets. Given all of these actions are moving the entire global supply chain, it's important to see the playbook for what it is: an activist investor playbook on a struggling business launched by two billionaire businessmen who are advised by other business people.
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In an activist investor scenario, it takes 12-24 months to turn around the company. Efforts are underway at Starbucks right now. You can get alerted to the activist opportunities via LevelFields' activist scenarios. This is a beginner-friendly, high-return, simple buy and hold for 12 months strategy anyone can do. Following it for Salesforce would have resulted in gains over 100% from the very first activist move.

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