Tiger Cubs: How Julian Robertson built a hedge fund dynasty
From talent management in cricket, let’s now move to talent management in the world of asset management. This piece in the FT highlights how the remarkable methods used by the legendary Julian Robertson of Tiger Management to hire over the past forty years a succession of highly success fund managers. By way of background, Mr […]
How did India build their world-beating bench strength? They have a system
Thirty years on the opening up of the Indian economy in 1991, we are seeing generational change taking place in India’s Boardrooms so much so that “succession planning” is increasingly a deciding factor in our investment process. In this superbly researched piece, Sidharth Monga lays out how “succession planning” – rather than raw talent or […]
Kings of Capital Lenders: Ideally Placed to Press the Accelerator
Over the past 15 months, the Kings of Capital (KCP) lenders have focused on broadly three aspects to counter the impact of Covid induced lockdowns and restricted economic activity: (i) augmenting collection capacity to sustain NPAs at manageable levels; (ii) preserving liquidity by raising debt/deposits at competitive interest rates; and (iii) maintaining healthy capital adequacy […]
The story of mRNA vaccines at the messaging edge of genetics
Pandemics much like wars and other calamaties have a brighter side to them. They tend to bring the best of human ingenuity in terms of progress in science and technology in particular. Whilst the technology of mRNA wasn’t exactly developed during the pandemic, it did find its most important application saving millions of lives in […]
Why it is usually a mistake for investors to take profits
Last week we featured a piece by James Anderson, a fund manager at Baillie Gifford, a more than a century old investment management firm, making it big in the world of new age tech investing, adapting its investing styles to the changing business models. Here’s a piece from another investment manager from Baillie Gifford, Lawrence Burns about yet […]
Add Crypto to IndiaStack
A lot of us fundamental-types tend to dismiss off crypto as a fad and hence unwittingly form a barrier to our comprehension of the whole subject. Last week, one of India’s best minds in terms of putting technology to the benefit of the economy – Nandan Nilekani, a co-founder and currently the chairman of the Indian […]
Don’t Approach Life Like a Picky Eater
In this piece, Arthur Brooks explains how you and I can have the right amount of neophilia i.e. openness to new experiences. Why is this a good thing? “Openness to a wide variety of life experiences, from visiting interesting places to considering unusual political views, brings happiness. “Only someone who is ready for everything, who doesn’t […]
The Indian megacity digging a million wells
Most of us know that Bangalore has a water-scarcity issue as it is one of India’s few large cities not to be situated adjacent to a major river. We have also heard that Bangalore’s deep groundwater is running out. As this piece from the BBC says, “The Cauvery River is a lifeline to the city, supplying […]
Little Champs Doubled Their Free Cashflow in FY21
Marcellus’ Little Champs portfolio witnessed revenue growth of 31% YoY and PBT growth of 51% YoY in 4QFY21 (vs 13% and 36% respectively in 3QFY21). More impressively, the Little Champs companies more than DOUBLED their average free cash flow in FY21 (despite continuing to invest heavily in expansion) thanks to cost controls, working capital management […]
The Brain-Changing Magic of New Experiences
Many of us are craving to visit new places, for a more active social life meeting new people and in general experiencing new things in life. Whilst some of us have been fortunate to experience novelty by seeing the same things in our everyday life in a new way, as the author of this piece […]
How the World Ran Out of Everything
Plenty has been written about the supply constraints the world is facing during the pandemic – semiconductor chips to shipping containers, chemicals to car parts. This piece however, brings to light the role of ‘Just In Time’ manufacturing as a cause for this supply disruption. The huge benefits of a lean and mean supply chain and hence […]
How Amateur Sleuths Broke the Wuhan Lab Story and Embarrassed the Media
The internet has become a massive force of decentralisation impacting several facets of human life. DeFi or Decentralised Finance is hogging the limelight for attempting to take money and everything related to money away from the authorities’ influence. But there are many other areas not obvious to us which are being swept by the force […]
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