Richard Branson | wealthymatters

Be A Brand

August 14, 2012 4 Comments

Just look at Richard Branson and how he clowns himself personally to create awareness of the various businesses he launches.

In India, no one has perfected this better than Narayan Murthy of Infosys. Tales about how he believes in simple living, wears ordinary clothes, gives his driver millions of dollars of Infosys shares, etc. etc. are now folklore. But they all finally reflect on his Company – Infosys.

Individuals can take a much larger and direct role in communicating messages than a ‘non living’ Company. Use your personal charisma, intelligence and passion to communicate what your business and Company stand for. Start by blogging, tweeting , updating your facebook and linkedin profile etc.Make the time and don’t proffer the excuse of lack of time.

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Learning From Sir Richard Branson

August 9, 2012 16 Comments

Here is what Sir Richard has to say:

1. On big companies vs. small companies

“Small is beautiful.” Sir Richard doesn’t see size as a competitive advantage.

His Virgin Records label is not the biggest in the music industry, but in 1992 it attracted the Rolling Stones. Virgin Airlines has a mere 37 airplanes versus the 700+ maintained by its competitors. It’s better to spin off a company into a second smaller company (as Virgin Atlantic spun off Virgin America) than grow larger, Sir Richard believes, because smaller companies can stay both more nimble and more customer-focused. They can also maintain the style and “cheekiness” of their early trailblazing if they stay relatively compact. Read more of this post

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Different Types Of Entrepreneurs

June 15, 2012 3 Comments

Great description of the different type of entrepreneurs.

A Life Well Lived

Let’s take a break from life insurance for a minute and talk about business. One of the most interesting job titles a person can have besides Ice Cream Taste Tester or International Super Spy would have to be the almighty “Entrepreneur.” There’s just something about that word that’s mysteriously interesting and hip all at the same time. Maybe because it screams “Hey! Look at me! I’m different than most people! I’m my own boss!” I’d have to agree — I’d be more interested in listening to someone with “entrepreneur” as their job title rather than an “account representative” any day of the week. However, not all entrepreneurs are created equal. I’d much rather speak with the CEO of Tesla Motors as opposed to the creator of Throx. I have no problem with people calling themselves entrepreneurs, but if they do, I often wonder what category of entrepreneur they fall…

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The Dhandho Investor

March 6, 2011 4 Comments

This book is pretty small – just a little over 200 pages.And I love it.I am naturally a bargain hunter and love shopping in sales.I also love getting high quality goods at bargain-basement prices.So It’s small wonder that I am attracted to value investing.The danger of shopping in sales is that a person picks up things they don’t have any use for or items that are not a perfect fit just because they are cheap.Then there is a danger of buying poor quality stuff just because it seems to cost so little.The same applies to buying stocks cheap.Sometimes the whole market is beaten down and all stocks seem cheap, but if I buy stocks of companies I would not normally buy because of their poor returns to investors,just because they are cheap,I am left with the problem of selling them when the market and the stock recovers.This is a problem for me personally as I have a tendency to get married to my stocks.At other times a stock sells for low P/E multiples simply because there is something fundamentally wrong with the company. Stocking up on the shares and hoping for a turn-around is pretty foolish.But I am an optimistic type and I need to force myself to turn away from such situations.Over a period of time I have found ways to control my habits.When the markets are down,I first establish a budget and then try to make a list of likely stocks and arrange them in order of attractiveness depending on Buffett-style criteria and tell myself that I’m to invest over 80% of the budget on only the top 5 of my list.I find this stops me from stocking up on not so great businesses that I might find hard to sell later.Then I have accepted the fact that I am a speculator at heart.I no longer try to fight the urge but try to use the Dhandho Principles that come pretty naturally to me to gain out of my speculative tendencies.This is a book I recommend for all investors like me who like value investing but can’t overcome the urge to speculate.

Here is a round up chapter-wise of what is found in the book:-

Chapter 1

Pabrai starts the book by discussing the term “dhandho“which is a Gujarati word meaning “business”. Gujarat is a western coastal state in India that has served as a hotbed for trade with Asia and Africa. The Patels are a community of particularly entrepreunerial Gujaratis whose entrepreneurial ventures led to them forming a dominant part of the East African economy by the early 1970s. When Asians were thrown out of Uganda in 1972 on the basis of their race, a flurry of Patel immigrants landed in Canada, England and the United States. Read more of this post

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Mohnish Pabrai

March 6, 2011 1 Comment

Mohnish Pabrai is an Indian-American businessman and deep value investor.He is the managing partner of the Pabrai Investment Funds, which he founded in 1999.He is also a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) and a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE).

Monhnish Pabrai first trained as a computer engineer. He then spent nearly two decades in the tech field.In 1990, he quit his job working as an engineer for Tellabs in Chicago and abandoned his master’s thesis at the Illinois Institute of Technology to launch TransTech, an IT consulting and systems integration company, which he funded with $30,000 from his retirement account and $70,000 from credit cards.His father encouraged him in the endeavour,saying that it was the right thing to do as staying at Tellabs and following the staid boring corporate path was high risk. Starting a business on the other hand was low risk, could give high returns and high adventure. As Monaish was single at the time there were few complications and in the worst case, he would lose everything ,which wasn’t much anyway,and could declare personal bankruptcy and start over. By 1999, Transtech, which had grown to 200 employees and $30 million in revenues, held no thrill. So he sold it. And during the tech boom,he started another company, internet incubator Digital Disrupters, which had a very painful and swift demise due the tightening of capital markets .In 2000, he sold TransTech to Kurt Salmon Associates.During late 1999, with nine other investors contributing $100,000 each,Mohnish started Pabrai Funds with $1,000,000 in assets. Pabrai Funds was modelled on the original “Buffett Partnership.” Read more of this post