The death of the department store
Whilst this long read from The Guardian focuses on the closure of the John Lewis’ sixty-year old department store in the city of Sheffield, England, in June 2021, the article frames this store closure more broadly to highlight what is happening to city centre department stores the world over. Given that John Lewis is not […]
Chuck Akre – The Three-Legged Stool
In his now legendary podcast series, Patrick interviews Chuck Akre, “a now widely famous investor who founded Akre Capital Management in 1989, which now manages approximately $10B dollars.” The interview is structured around Chuck’s mental model of a 3-legged stool which happens to be very similar to Marcellus’ 3-fold criteria for investing i.e. clean management, good capital […]
Kings of Capital NBFCs Are Growing Rapidly
While the ILFS crisis highlighted the risks associated with India’s shadow lenders, there are a few NBFCs which have not only been able to effectively compete against banks but have also been able to generate superior ROE and earnings growth. The three NBFCs in the Kings of Capital portfolio – Bajaj Finance, Aavas Financiers and […]
Malayalam superhero film ‘Minnal Murali’ become a global sensation
In case you are amongst the few people who haven’t yet watched the superhit Malayali movie, “Minnal Murali” you should sit down in front of this Netflix Global top 10 movie this very minute. As Priyanka Roy writes “Even more than a month after its release, the Minnal Murali wave continues to hold audiences in […]
Facebook is shrinking
Two weeks ago we published our review of Dr Jonathan Knee’s excellent book, “The Platform Delusion” in which explains meticulously – using extensive research and detailed evidence – that the notion of “network effects” has been overhyped – see https://marcellus.in/story/review-of-dr-jonathan-knees-book-the-platform-delusion-who-wins-and-who-loses-in-the-age-of-tech-titans/As if on cue, news has now emerged that the number of customers using Facebook is now […]
From Curious to Competent
This is a superb piece written by three headhunters from the executive search firm, Egon Zehnder. The piece focuses on “curiosity”. Why? Because the headhunters at Egon have found that: “Although we have found that high potentials also need insight, engagement, and determination, curiosity—defined as a penchant for seeking new experiences, knowledge, and feedback and an […]
The building blocks of a good IPL auction strategy
In the high stakes world of franchise cricket, owners and head coaches tend to make the same mistakes the company owners make eg. making investments in the latest hot sector (i.e. suffering from recency bias), getting infatuated by trophy assets, focusing on the outcome rather than the process, second guessing the CEO/Captain, etc. In this […]
Reasons to Abandon Spotify That Have Nothing to Do with Joe Rogan
Joe Rogan is a former TV commentator in the USA who now does a podcast on Spotify. He recently said some controversial things about Covid vaccines and thereby stirred up the usual hornet’s nest. The good thing is that on the back of that controversy, Alex Ross has written a thought-provoking piece on why services like […]
Why self-congratulatory balle-balle culture, not Pakistani drones, is biggest threat to Punjab
If you are a Punjabi you might find this biting piece from Shekhar Gupta to be a painful read. If hail from any other part of India, you are likely to find this piece to be a cautionary tale because it describes how in the space of a generation a state can go from being […]
Rising Giants and Exponential Free Cash Flow Compounding
The road to free cash flow (FCF) compounding is filled with several challenges related to the strength of the business model as well as the capability of the management to grow the business profitably. Hence, only a handful of Indian small-midcap companies manage to generate healthy FCF compounding. Helped by an economic environment conducive for […]
Avesh Khan and the maza of bowling fast
Once upon a time, most of Indian cricket’s big stars used to come from the big cities. The remaking of India has changed that for good – think MS Dhoni, think Jasprit Bumrah, think Mohammad Shami. The rise of fast bowler Avesh Khan, a fast bowler from Indore newly selected to the Indian cricket team, […]
He’s not done yet — Why Kapil Sharma, the mass celebrity, deserved Netflix limelight
Stand-up comedy has benefited from the pandemic as several of us had more time on our hands to laugh at a good joke. In fact, courtesy the internet & smartphones and now OTT, Indian comedians have enjoyed a bull run over the past decade. However, most of these entertainers tend to be “people like us” […]
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