Spread of railways, WWII demands—How USHA sewing machine came to dominate Indian markets
Whilst investors like us can’t stop talking about the “formalisation” and the “networking” of the Indian economy – see for example https://marcellus.in/blogs/indias-moment-after-a-decade-of-structural-reforms/ – those who have studied India’s business history often give us case studies of 80 year old Indian companies who used technology and modern marketing techniques to create dominant pan-India franchises in the space of […]
Little Champs: Spotlighting Vijaya Diagnostic
This month we place the spotlight on Vijaya Diagnostic Centre Limited (Vijaya), a leading diagnostic player in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and one of the few organised players to offer an integrated offering of pathology (2/3rd revenue contribution) and radiology (1/3rd share of revenues). Vijaya has consistently outperformed its integrated diagnostic peers (FY18-22 average EBITDA margin nearly […]
The glory of grandparents
Last week, India became the world’s most populous country as the Chinese census showed that the Chinese population is now on the decline joining its neighbour Japan and much of the developed world. This change in demographics thanks to lower fertility rates and lower mortality rates has also left the world with an ageing population. […]
Why Value Investing Requires Thoughtful Arrogance
Investing is simple but not easy is a quote attributed to the great Warren Buffet. But among the many things that make it difficult is the need to find that careful balance between humility and conviction. This is because whilst without the former we won’t learn and without the latter we won’t be able to […]
Rentokil takes on the world’s rat problem with facial recognition
Rodent infestation is a problem that almost every large city in the world has to deal with. Conventionally, this problem has been addressed by mousetraps and rat poison. Now, Rentokil says that it has found a more effective way to deal with the issue by using facial recognition: “Rentokil said its surveillance service, which live […]
Goodhart’s Law Isn’t as Useful as You Might Think
‘Focus on the process, not the outcome’ is something we hear often from successful people across disciplines ranging from business to sport. This is a brilliant piece to appreciate this principle better, especially for those of us who have to make decisions to solve for problems where it is not obvious what input variables (often […]
Why Toyota Spent Years Treating Electric Cars Like the Enemy
At every other Research meeting in Marcellus, the late Clayton Christensen and his theory of the “Innovator’s Dilemma” is evoked. Christensen described “how large incumbent companies lose market share by listening to their customers and providing what appears to be the highest-value products, but new companies that serve low-value customers with poorly developed technology can […]
The Real ‘Dangal’, starring Vinesh
Last year we wrote about the massive changes taking place in the lives of Indian women as they steadily pull ahead of their male counterparts at every level of the education ladder and also emerge as highly effective entrepreneurs in the digital era – see https://marcellus.in/blogs/educated-employed-and-empowered-the-rise-of-indian-women/. The rise of Indian women is a story which […]
Boring Companies Compound Profits At 20% p.a.
Investors who’ve studied Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch know that so-called “boring” stocks can turn out to be great investments in the long run. In India, a few lenders have been able to perform consistently across cycles. However, this also makes them prey to cycles where share prices don’t tend to follow fundamentals as investors […]
Women work harder than men – our anthropological study reveals why
Having more women in the workplace not just adds to diversity and improves idea generation, they also work harder. We knew that anecdotally but here’s a study by a PhD student and her Professor that shows tangible evidence that women indeed work harder than men. The study also attempts to find evolutionary reasons for why […]
How thinking hard makes the brain tired
Much like physical fatigue, our minds also get tired after a bout of intensive work that involves mental application. However, what causes mental fatigue wasn’t particularly well understood. As this article says, the earlier theories suggesting lack of energy were proven wrong as cognitive work consumes very few calories. New research points to accumulation of […]
Just How Common Is Corporate Fraud?
The end of every bull market brings with it revelations of corporate fraud (think Enron, Maddoff, Satyam and now the crypto blowups). Our forensic accounting research on the Indian stockmarket has suggested that over the past decade a third or so of listed Indian companies have done naughty things with their accounts – see https://marcellus.in/newsletter/little-champs/the-importance-of-accounting-quality/ In […]
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