Long read: Blind to Disruption – The CEOs Who Missed the Future
No other technology in history came close to being the most broad-based disruptive threat for so many industries as much as AI. Hence, this essay from Steve Blank is a timely reminder for company managements and investors alike. Blank uses Clayton Christensen’s disruption model, beautifully illustrated in his brilliant book “Innovator’s Dilemma” to take us through the […]
Long read: That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was on Purpose
We have all been there – on calls to customer service agents of banks or airlines or widget manufacturers or government departments; calls on which we are kept “on hold” for hours and then when we finally get to speak to an agent, we are presented with a complication or some sort of pre-qualification process […]
Long read: ‘You can’t be the player’s friend’: inside the secret world of tennis umpires
If you think your job is stressful you should try being a professional tennis umpire. This riveting long read in The Guardian from William Ralston first gives you a brief history of how paid full time professional umpires were created in the mid-80s to referee tennis matches (after things had crazy over the previous decade […]
Global Compounders: Greatness and Value Capture
Marcellus’ Global Compounders Portfolio (GCP) strategically invests in 25-35 deeply moated global companies aligned with megatrends which aid the delivery of mid-to-high teens compounding of free cash flow/earnings. To identify such compounders, one of the markers that we look for is the amount of value companies are able to capture from broader opportunities. This is […]
Short read: Unsung History: The Merchants Who Controlled the Chola Empire
The nexus between business and government isn’t a modern phenomenon. This fascinating piece about Indian history gives us a glimpse of one of India’s dominant kingdoms, almost a millennium and a half ago, when trade flourished and contributed to the success of the rulers. It refers to the Chola empire and its famous merchants, collectively […]
Short read: I’ve Spent My Life Measuring Risk. AI Rings Every One of My Alarm Bells
Paul Tudor Jones is amongst the most accomplished hedge fund managers in the world. And by definition, a ‘hedge’ fund manager is meant to know a thing or two about managing or hedging risk. And here he is ringing alarm bells about AI and the risks it poses to humanity. He starts by talking about […]
Short read: When Dubai almost became a part of India
The cocktail party circuit talk in the Maximum City is about how one of these days a slice of POK will become a part of the Union of India. Those Indians who get excited at the thought of territorial acquisition would be shocked to hear that once upon a time, the whole of the Middle […]
Long read: More young people are getting cancer. It changes everything
Progress in medical science has indeed helped improve life expectancy by enabling early detection of disease as well as cure. However, lifestyle changes have also increased incidence of the deadly disease of cancer, which is also manifesting early in people’s lives: “Breast cancer mainly affects middle-aged and older women – the median age of someone diagnosed […]
Long read: The plunder and loot by private healthcare in India
Harsh Mander is a notable writer and social activist. In this piece he focuses on a dilemma that governments across the world are facing: “Paul Farmer in ‘Pathologies of Power’ speaks evocatively of the crossroads at which humankind today finds itself. Healthcare, he observes, can be considered either a “commodity to be sold” or “a basic […]
Long read: The scammers gaming India’s overcrowded job market
In 2018, Snigdha Poonam authored one of the best non-fiction books written in India in recent times. Her “Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing the World” is a collection of vivid reports from the smaller Hindi-speaking cities of North India where young men & women grapple with lack of employment opportunities and yet nurture intense ambition and […]
The Eighth Commandment: Relax & Refresh (Don’t reflect)
Summary: Give yourself time to relax, recover, and refresh. And when you are relaxing do NOT let your mind brood over past mistakes and try not to dwell on the challenges tomorrow will bring. [To find out what the Ten Commandments of Indian Entrepreneurship are, please click here: https://marcellus.in/blogs/the-ten-commandments-of-entrepreneurship-in-india/] “Six days you shall labor and do […]
Short read: Who are the world’s best investors?
This article might be an eye opener for those who chase IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) in the stock market. Whilst you can excuse those who hope to pocket listing gains and flip (that is if you are not left holding the parcel when the music stops), this piece shows it makes little sense for long […]
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