Are anti-competitive firms killing American innovation?
When the economist, Thomas Phillipon, moved to America in 1999, he found a country where high quality products were available at “dazzlingly cheap” prices. “But over the past two decades, Mr Philippon writes in “The Great Reversal”, this paradise has been lost. Europeans now enjoy cheap cross-continent flights, high-street banking, and phone and internet services; Americans […]
What comes first – Strategy or Structure?
The former US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, famously said, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.” A robust military structure built on the foundations of unswerving training and a disciplined approach is one that is believed to win wars. This […]
The man who made the “worst” video game in history
We know of companies who have shot themselves in the foot going for instant glory and in the bargain sacrificing sustainability. Here’s an example of an entire industry – video gaming, which back in the 80s was bigger than Hollywood and pop music combined went bust, thanks to the mad rush for riches. Centrestage was […]
The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius
Paul Graham is an investor, especially known for having founded Y Combinator, a successful incubation platform in Silicon Valley, having incubated companies such as Airbnb, Drobbox, Doordash, etc. In this particularly insightful blog, Paul highlights the need for obsessive interest in a subject as a key ingredient for success, especially the creative kind of success. […]
How headphones are changing the sound of music
David Byrne’s book “How Music Works” talks about how music composition has a context to it. “For example, he explains that medieval European music was often harmonically simple because playing lots of notes at once sounded terrible in cathedrals, and that trumpets were common in early jazz because the instrument’s high frequency could be heard over a talkative […]
Why is Taking Action Hard?
As we approach the New Year, many of us are getting ready with our list of resolutions. Some of us will successfully follow through. Some of us will valiantly fight until we give up and likely push it into another New Year or any other such milestone event. It is normal to procrastinate as we […]
Expect the Roaring ’10s for Stocks to Repeat in the ’20s
This piece uses a very useful framework created by John Bogle for his classic book published 30-years ago (titled “Bogle on Mutual Funds”). In that book, Bogle shows that you can decompose the investment returns generated by the stockmarket into 3 segments): dividends, earnings growth and growth in P/E. Nir Kaissar uses this framework to […]
The importance of accounting quality
45% of the stocks which were in the BSE500 ten years ago have exited the index since. The primary driver of these exits is shoddy corporate governance and poor capital allocation (the two are linked). In contrast, the number of companies which have significantly enriched their shareholders are a handful. Inspired by Howard Schilit’s legendary […]
Parallels between investing and software development
At first glance, software development and investing seem to be poles apart. But we find a common and interesting thread in the process that investment managers and software developers follow. The first public release of the Android operating system (OS) for mobile phones was in 2008. The most recent version is its sixteenth, meaning an […]
How to Give People Advice They’ll Be Delighted to Take
Irrespective of our credentials, all of us tend to get approached for advice every now and then, from friends, family and co-workers. As advice seekers, we often find ourselves having a go-to person for advice. Why do we pick certain people over others? What do these people do better when it comes to giving advice? […]
Beware Footnote Mischief
At Marcellus, a big part of our job is forensic analysis of Indian annual reports. Hence we are always interested to hear about advances in this field elsewhere in the world. In this article, Julie Segal begins by saying that “Harvard Business School and MIT’s Sloan School of Management claim to have found the first empirical […]
Ray Dalio Is More Famous Than Ever and Delivering Subpar Returns
As a fund manager, Ray Dalio – the founder of Bridgewater Associates – has attained celebrity status and is arguably next only to Warren Buffett in the celebrity stakes. His book, “Principles”, “his 600-page manifesto for success that has sold 2.2 million copies since its publication in September 2017. The tome, an unlikely crossover hit that’s […]
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