Are You Dreaming Too Big?
Setting ourselves goals to pursue, whether personal or professional, helps give direction to our efforts. But not all goals are helpful, says Arthur Brooks in this piece for The Atlantic. He says we shouldn’t be subjecting our sense of achievement to concentration risk by having one ambitious lifelong goal. We should rather set ourselves a […]
5 things you should know about variants
Sample studies of the recent covid surge in India points to several variants of the virus including a localised double mutant. Studies elsewhere such as France and the Czech Republic too have shown a large percentage to be driven by the highly transmissible UK variant. And there are the South African and Brazilian variants which […]
“Play Bigger: The How and Why of Category Design” – An Interview with Christopher Lochhead
“Play Bigger” is both the name of a book published five years ago and the name of a consultancy firm in Silicon Valley (whose founders wrote the book). We came across the book a month ago and found it be a fascinating read not least because it helped us understand why, for example, Cathy Wood’s […]
Transforming for Growth: An Evidence-Based Guide
In the aftermath of Covid-19 we have been pleasantly surprised to see that most of our investee companies have accelerated their earnings growth to 25%+ (i.e. significantly faster than pre-Covid level) and our fund managers have published newsletters seeking to rationalise this (see here and here). Now we highlight a rigorous study from BCG which drills into why […]
The pandemic has changed the shape of global happiness
An interesting study shows how Covid has affected happiness levels across the globe and across age groups. The interesting finding is that the world as a whole wasn’t any more or less happier during the peak of the pandemic relative to pre-Covid times. However, there are differences across geographies as well as age groups. The […]
Why a Canal Built in 1869 is More Important Than Ever
The 3L&3S has been featuring pieces about the bottlenecks in global trade caused by container shortages amongst other reasons. In a bizarre event, earlier this week, global trade has been dealt another hard blow from the most unforeseen of places. EverGiven, a massive container ship, taller than the Eiffel Tower is high, whilst sailing through the […]
A high growth plan for Indian agriculture
Several of us in Marcellus have known Ashok Gulati for the best part of the last ten years and whilst none of us are agri-economists, we have found plenty to admire in the man’s candour and his clarity of thought. In an age when sycophants are on the ascendant, Ashok Gulati is that rare public […]
Why bands are disappearing: ‘Young people aren’t excited by them’
In their book The Victory Project, my colleague Saurabh Mukherjea and his co-author Anupam Gupta talk about the benefits of collaboration in creative fields as well. However, at least in the world of music, collectivism seems to be making way for individuality. Adam Levine, the lead singer of the iconic band Maroon 5, noted recently that […]
How to be a genius
Craig Wright is a professor at Yale where he teaches a course on “genius” (in the competitive job market these days, nothing less will do). His most recent book is The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, IQ, and Grit – Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness (2020). In this really interesting long essay he simplifies […]
A Sixty-Year-Old Tool to Assess Capital Allocation Decisions
Capital allocation refers to the decisions about how a company should spend the money it has earned. If capital is invested in a way that does not generate returns that are higher than the cost of this capital, it obviously hurts the future business value of a company and in turn, hurts investors and shareholders. […]
Crawling on campus
Most of us prefer to live our private lives quietly. Some of those who get celebrated for their achievements still prefer to stay away from controversies especially those involving a face-off with the establishment. The question this oped and the event it refers to poses is if it is ok for private individuals or institutions […]
Covid-19 cases are rising again in much of the world
Just when the vaccination drive and the fall in caseload was reassuring us that we may have put the worst of Covid behind us, cases have begun rising again. Here in Mumbai, daily case count has shot up 5x in a matter of days. The rest of the state and country are also witnessing a […]
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