HT: “So what does being “middle-class” in India really mean? I have a saying: If your spouse doesn’t have to work, you’re middle class. If neither of you has to work, you’re rich. If your children don’t either, you’re wealthy. You’re middle-class if you track EMIs and your child’s school fees more closely than the Sensex. If you fly economy, buy your iPhone abroad, and Google “best mid-range air purifiers”. If you obsess over the price of milk but also shop at Zara. The middle-class is aspirational, stretched, always-reaching.”
FT: “In a new section for Security Analysis, the seminal work by Ben Graham and David Dodd that was republished last year, Combs described how he looks for a moat, a competitive advantage that would be hard for rivals to overcome. “Add on characteristics like low capital intensity, pricing power, recurring revenues, staying power, and the likelihood of long-term growth, and you have a great business,” he added.”
Morgan Housel: “Dunkirk was a miracle. More than 330,000 Allied soldiers, pinned down by Nazi attacks, were successfully evacuated from the beaches of France back to England, ferried by hundreds of small civilian boats. London broke out in celebration when the mission was completed. Few were more relieved than Winston Churchill, who feared the imminent destruction of his army. But Edmund Ironside, commander of British Home Forces, pointed out that if the Allies could quickly ferry a third of a million troops from France to England while avoiding aerial attack, the Germans probably could, too. Churchill had been holding onto hope that Germany couldn’t cross the Channel with an invasion force; such a daring mission seemed impossible. But then his own army proved it was quite possible. Dunkirk was both a success and a foreboding. Your competitors can probably innovate and execute as well as you can. So every time you uncover a new talent you’re proud of, temper your thrill with the acceptance that other people who want to win as badly as you probably aren’t far behind.”
Christoph Schweizer: “Historically, many companies closing a merger or an acquisition have given lip service to growth. Instead, they should provide the same level of detail in their plans for growth as they do for savings. And then deliver on them. Over my 27 years at BCG, I’ve supported a dozen large-scale PMIs. The most successful integrations were growth-oriented.” [via BCG newsletter]
