Martina Navratilova on Megan Rapinoe and the Trajectory of Gay Women in Sports
Author: Masha Gessen Source: New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/martina-navratilova-on-megan-rapinoe-and-the-trajectory-of-gay-women-in-sports) The unwinding of prejudice – whether it is around race, caste or sexuality – is not just a socially relevant issue, it is also fascinating for investors to watch given the insights it provides into how “consensus” on a given subject evolves the course of 20-30 years. Hence, […]
Hedge Funds Are Tracking Private Jets to Find the Next Megadeal
Author: Justin Bachman Source: Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-02/hedge-funds-are-tracking-private-jets-to-find-the-next-megadeal) That hedge funds are always data hungry is not surprising but the new ways they find to satiate their hunger surprises us. Justin Bachman in his article shows how hedge fund managers track private jets to predict the next big M&A in the USA. He gives a recent example […]
China and new tech generation shake old notions of good branding
Author: John Gapper Source: FT (https://www.ft.com/content/4ba8c746-7bc4-11e9-8b5c-33d0560f039c) Only 22% of Searches on Amazon Include a Brand Name Author: Juozas “Joe” Kaziukėnas Source: Market Place Pulse (https://www.marketplacepulse.com/articles/only-22-of-searches-on-amazon-include-a-brand-name) John Kay, a British economist in his brilliant book on corporate strategy – “The Foundations of Corporate Success” cites among the most sustainable sources of competitive advantages as Brand, Architecture […]
Generalise, don’t specialise: why focusing too narrowly is bad for us
Author: David Epstein Source: The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/12/generalise-dont-specialise-why-focusing-too-narrowly-is-bad-for-us) In his best-selling book The Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talked about the power of singular focus and specialised training over ‘10,000 hours’ as a means to achieve success in any given field. David Epstein, (who also authored The Sports Gene) in his new book ‘Range: How Generalists Triumph in a […]
Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think
Author: Arthur C Brooks Source: The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/work-peak-professional-decline/590650/) It is no secret that age and happiness is linked. However, the relationship between age and happiness is not linear: “In wealthier countries, most people’s contentment starts to increase again in their 50s, until age 70 or so. That is where things get less predictable, however. After […]
How Football Leaks Is Exposing Corruption in European Soccer
Author: Sam Knight Source: New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/03/how-football-leaks-is-exposing-corruption-in-european-soccer) Did you know that last season, according to the accounting firm Deloitte, European soccer had revenues of twenty-eight billion dollars, about the same as Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and the National Football League combined. European soccer is the most lucrative sports arena in the world […]
The special role of arts in the day and age of machines
Author: Kapil Viswanathan, Sangita Jindal Source: Live Mint (https://www.livemint.com/opinion) Art has witnessed the evolution of human progress over centuries and it is our ability to appreciate beauty through art that set us apart from other living species & machines. In a changing world of data, Artificial Intelligence and autonomous machines, the arts are of greater […]
Auto-driver to IIM case study: Pyare Khan’s journey on uncharted highway
Vivek Deshpande has beautifully captured the story of Pyare Khan’s hard work, determination and his growth as well as opportunities which a developing country like India throws to its ordinary citizens. Pyare Khan’s journey starts from riding an autorickshaw in the by lanes of Nagpur. His desire of making big led him to take a […]
Should You Take the Annunity or the Lump Sum?
Author: Nick Maggiulli Source: Of Dollars and Data (https://ofdollarsanddata.com/should-you-take-the-annuity-or-the-lump-sum/) In the book Coffee Can Investing, co-authored by our colleagues Saurabh Mukherjea and Rakshit Ranjan, they highlight the gross under-provision for retirement amongst middle class Indian families, not just because of the sub-optimal asset allocation (often skewed towards real estate) but exacerbated by rising life expectancy […]
How Costco gained a cult following — by breaking every rule of retail
Author: Zachary Crockett Source: The Hustle (https://thehustle.co/costco-membership-economics) CEOs and management teams of companies are typically expected to focus on maximising shareholder value. Here’s a company whose investors have always complained for putting its customers and employees ahead of its shareholders and yet achieved greatness and delivered shareholder value – Costco, the American brick & mortar […]
Sikh drivers are transforming U.S. trucking. Take a ride along the Punjabi American highway
Author: Jaweed Kaleem Source: LA Times (https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-col1-sikh-truckers-20190627-htmlstory.html) In contrast to the preceding piece from the New York Times, the LA Times brings you a story about Indian immigrants to America who have created a more niche, and arguably more sustainable type of restaurant business focusing on Sikh truckers who haul heavy loads across America’s interstate […]
Fast food chain Subway got too big and its franchisees paid a price
Author: Tiffany Hsu & Rachel Abrams Source: New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/business/subway-franchisees.html) One of the first things we learnt when we started investing in India is that any business where barriers to entry are low will sooner rather than later become a cesspit as the lack of profits will make the stakeholders go for each others’ […]
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