Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Google Finance:)
It was actually one of my dreams, that google should have a dedicated site just for finance.. yahoo finance is good but somehow not great. yet the beta of google finance(finance.google.com/finance) is still nothing great but I am hoping the next version is much better!
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
PAT (I know what the fin guys are thinking) for honesty
While there has been a lot of debate about high IIM salaries http://dhoomk2.blogspot.com/2006/03/are-mba-salaries-worth-it.html, i found this comment from my diro damn honest and straight forward. I have worked with him a couple of times and he is that kind of a guy. It was nice to hear this from him -
On the performance of students at the final placements, the IIM-B director said, "There is no competition between IIM-Ahmedabad and Bangalore. It is just media hype. Sometimes IIM-A students get higher offers and sometimes our students get them. It is all linked to the general economic conditions. The salaries are higher this year because the Indian economy is doing well and the market is expanding."
Another honest post was an interview from Warren Buffet, read along. Found this at http://radventure.blogspot.com
He was honest enough to admit he doesnt understand technology firms!
Warren Buffet on:
Career advice
If you want to make a lot of money go to Wall Street. More importantly though, do what you would do for free, having passion for what you do is the most important thing. … A few months ago I was talking to another MBA student, a very talented man, about 30 years old from a great school with a great resume. I asked him what he wanted to do for his career, and he replied that he wanted to go into a particular field, but thought he should work for McKinsey for a few years first to add to his resume. To me that's like saving sex for your old age. It makes no sense.
Investing
When making investments, pretend in life you have a punch-card with only 20 boxes, and every time you make an investment you punch a slot. It will discipline you to only make investments you have extreme confidence in. Big money is made by obvious things. If using a discount rate of 8% vs. 10% is going to make or break an investment idea, it's probably not a good idea.
When Berkshire acquired a 90% stake in NFM in the 80's, Ms. B and I shook hands and signed a two-page agreement. There was no audit of the books, no due diligence, I trusted her integrity. When Wal-Mart sold me one of their operating units, their CFO came to my office, I gave him a price, he called Bentonville [Arkansas - Wal-Mart headquarters], and that day the deal was done. I know how Wal-Mart conducts business [very well], and when we took over the division, it was exactly how they described it. So integrity is a requirement. One of Berkshire's businesses is FlightSafety, the founder is dedicated to preventing deaths, he's not motivated by the next quarter's numbers.
His legacy
I think an example is the best thing you can leave behind. Obviously, you want to leave the right example. I mean, Wilt Chamberlain's tombstone may say, "At last, I sleep alone," and that's probably not the example you want to leave. If what I've done with Berkshire Hathaway - running a unique and independent company in true pursuit of shareholder value - persists and people learn from it to improve the way they invest and run their companies, that would be a fine legacy to leave.
His aversion for investing in technology companies
Technology is clearly a boost to business productivity and a driver of better consumer products and the like, so as an individual I have a high appreciation for the power of technology. I have avoided technology sectors as an investor because in general I don't have a solid grasp of what differentiates many technology companies. I don't know how to spot durable competitive advantage in technology. To get rich, you find businesses with durable competitive advantage and you don't overpay for them. Technology is based on change; and change is really the enemy of the investor. Change is more rapid and unpredictable in technology relative to the broader economy. To me, all technology sectors look like 7-foot hurdles.
On the performance of students at the final placements, the IIM-B director said, "There is no competition between IIM-Ahmedabad and Bangalore. It is just media hype. Sometimes IIM-A students get higher offers and sometimes our students get them. It is all linked to the general economic conditions. The salaries are higher this year because the Indian economy is doing well and the market is expanding."
Another honest post was an interview from Warren Buffet, read along. Found this at http://radventure.blogspot.com
He was honest enough to admit he doesnt understand technology firms!
Warren Buffet on:
Career advice
If you want to make a lot of money go to Wall Street. More importantly though, do what you would do for free, having passion for what you do is the most important thing. … A few months ago I was talking to another MBA student, a very talented man, about 30 years old from a great school with a great resume. I asked him what he wanted to do for his career, and he replied that he wanted to go into a particular field, but thought he should work for McKinsey for a few years first to add to his resume. To me that's like saving sex for your old age. It makes no sense.
Investing
When making investments, pretend in life you have a punch-card with only 20 boxes, and every time you make an investment you punch a slot. It will discipline you to only make investments you have extreme confidence in. Big money is made by obvious things. If using a discount rate of 8% vs. 10% is going to make or break an investment idea, it's probably not a good idea.
When Berkshire acquired a 90% stake in NFM in the 80's, Ms. B and I shook hands and signed a two-page agreement. There was no audit of the books, no due diligence, I trusted her integrity. When Wal-Mart sold me one of their operating units, their CFO came to my office, I gave him a price, he called Bentonville [Arkansas - Wal-Mart headquarters], and that day the deal was done. I know how Wal-Mart conducts business [very well], and when we took over the division, it was exactly how they described it. So integrity is a requirement. One of Berkshire's businesses is FlightSafety, the founder is dedicated to preventing deaths, he's not motivated by the next quarter's numbers.
His legacy
I think an example is the best thing you can leave behind. Obviously, you want to leave the right example. I mean, Wilt Chamberlain's tombstone may say, "At last, I sleep alone," and that's probably not the example you want to leave. If what I've done with Berkshire Hathaway - running a unique and independent company in true pursuit of shareholder value - persists and people learn from it to improve the way they invest and run their companies, that would be a fine legacy to leave.
His aversion for investing in technology companies
Technology is clearly a boost to business productivity and a driver of better consumer products and the like, so as an individual I have a high appreciation for the power of technology. I have avoided technology sectors as an investor because in general I don't have a solid grasp of what differentiates many technology companies. I don't know how to spot durable competitive advantage in technology. To get rich, you find businesses with durable competitive advantage and you don't overpay for them. Technology is based on change; and change is really the enemy of the investor. Change is more rapid and unpredictable in technology relative to the broader economy. To me, all technology sectors look like 7-foot hurdles.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Tagging along!
Got tagged by Dips, so
Seven things to do before I die :
Learn to cook - reducing core dependencies:)
Do something entreprenurial - Take one of my ideas to execution.
Travel around the world - Esp australia and South america.
Work at/for/with Google - Simply love that company.
Direct a movie.
Lose weight.
Change the world.
Seven things I can't do:
Lose weight:)
Meet Bill watterson.
Stop eating corner house ice cream!
Leave my friends.
Be a sportsman.
Be extremely organized.
Be less interested in the markets.
Seven things that attract me to Europe:
Prague.
Anti-americanism.
The history.
Different cultures.
Rail network.
Eastern europe.
French vineyards.
Seven excellent books:
Golden Gate - Vikram Seth
Midnights children - Rushdie
Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor
Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Argumentative Indian- Amartya Sen
All the lonely planets!
Calvin and Hobbes - 20th Anniversary special
Seven good movies:
Cinema Paradiso
Motorcycle diaries
Y tu mama tambien
Shawshank Redemption
Nayagan
Rang De Basanti
Swades
Seven people to tag - this is tough, not many people i know are blog savvy! so some of this will be already tagged people and still i might not end up at 7:)
Bee
Kau
Ravikiran
Dibyo
Chitra
Anand
Seven things to do before I die :
Learn to cook - reducing core dependencies:)
Do something entreprenurial - Take one of my ideas to execution.
Travel around the world - Esp australia and South america.
Work at/for/with Google - Simply love that company.
Direct a movie.
Lose weight.
Change the world.
Seven things I can't do:
Lose weight:)
Meet Bill watterson.
Stop eating corner house ice cream!
Leave my friends.
Be a sportsman.
Be extremely organized.
Be less interested in the markets.
Seven things that attract me to Europe:
Prague.
Anti-americanism.
The history.
Different cultures.
Rail network.
Eastern europe.
French vineyards.
Seven excellent books:
Golden Gate - Vikram Seth
Midnights children - Rushdie
Great Indian Novel - Shashi Tharoor
Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
Argumentative Indian- Amartya Sen
All the lonely planets!
Calvin and Hobbes - 20th Anniversary special
Seven good movies:
Cinema Paradiso
Motorcycle diaries
Y tu mama tambien
Shawshank Redemption
Nayagan
Rang De Basanti
Swades
Seven people to tag - this is tough, not many people i know are blog savvy! so some of this will be already tagged people and still i might not end up at 7:)
Bee
Kau
Ravikiran
Dibyo
Chitra
Anand
Monday, March 06, 2006
Unravelling travel plans
Its been a while since I travelled to see, the last being turkey around may last year and after that most of my travel has been to chill out with no intention to actually see a place.. I am hoping I can travel to eastern europe sometime this year focusing on Czech, Poland, Hungary and Slovekia in about a 15-17 day period including weekends. I have heard a lot about prague and krakow which are supposed to be europes loveliest cities. The trip depends on a lot of things including finding company and some cheap fares. Otherwise, I plan to do a trip to India's north east.
Meanwhile homo (my wingie Srikant) tells me that my pictures with his explanations won a lot of applause at a recent Mocha backpackers club meeting in bombay. He even has increased his fan following by three more women, though we never know the actual cumulative number at any point of time:) I am thinking I should get a fair share of this particular accumlation with due respect to my photographs. it will be a good idea to have such meetings in Bangalore too, atleast u can easily meet enthu travel junta!
Belf
Meanwhile homo (my wingie Srikant) tells me that my pictures with his explanations won a lot of applause at a recent Mocha backpackers club meeting in bombay. He even has increased his fan following by three more women, though we never know the actual cumulative number at any point of time:) I am thinking I should get a fair share of this particular accumlation with due respect to my photographs. it will be a good idea to have such meetings in Bangalore too, atleast u can easily meet enthu travel junta!
Belf
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