Some more Books

Monday blues attacked me today and decided to stay back at home. After some rest, went to nearby Crossword store & bought below books:

1. I have a dram by Rashmi Bansal
2. 108 Mantras for Financial Success
3. Who says Elephants can't Dance by Louis Gerstner, Jr.
4. Unusal people do things differently by T  G C Prasad
5. Recipes for Success - The food & vision of India's Achievers by Aarti Kochhar

Regards, Rohit

Reading

I have recently subscribed to electronic edition of Outlook Profit while the physical mode subscription is already running. At Rs.300 for a year, e copy is very reasonably priced. I have recently also subscribed to Money Life by Sucheta Dalal. I did not get a chance to read it as yet though.

Moneycontrol has an article on how to pick stocks the warren buffet way.

Over the weekend, bought below books.

1. When the Penny Drops by R Gopalakrishnan
2. Ten Much by A G Krishnamurthy
3. How Starbucks Saved My life by Michael Gill

Regards, Rohit

Book Reading

Read 'Ambani & Sons' by Hamish McDonald. Has a complete story of how Reliance empire has been built from scratch. A must read to understand how bureaucracy worked in the License Raj days & the ways people used to get around that.

Regards, Rohit

Book Reading

Purchased few interesting books recently. Leaving very close to a big mall still does not help devoting a quality time that one needs to buy & read good books. So this has become like a bi-annual affair for me to go and buy all I can :)

1. iCon - Steve Jobs, Jeffrey Young & William Simon
2. Enterprising India, IIFL
3. Think India, The rist of the world's next super power, Vinay Rai & William Simon
4. The IITians, Sandipan Deb
5. The creation fo wealth - The Tatas from the 19th to the 21st Century, R M Lala
6. Business Maharajas by Geeta Piramal
7. Ambani & Sons, Hamish McDonald
8. Go Kiss the world, Subrato  Bagchi
9. Business Wizards - Andhra Pradesh
10. The Invincible Investor by Top Global Financial Planners
11. How to read Cash Flow Statement

Regards, Rohit

Banker to the Poor

This is an interesting book of how someone builds an inspiring institution from scratch & makes a difference in the lives of millions of poor people. Muhammad Yunus (Winner of Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006) has written this book " Banker to the Poor" along with Alan Jolis.

Dr. Yunus, while going to the university kept observing that inside the university there is all the knowledge of the world in the books but just outside the Campus, lot of poor people are struggling. He tried helping them by persuading the local bank to lend them . The traditional way of banking did not allow this to happen, as the poor do not have collateral nor ability to manage the documentation.

What follows then is a long journey of Dr. Yunus walking a different path. He finally took up on his own to show everyone that this was needed & was feasible. Dr. Yunus argues and proves with his own experiences that Poor people are more honest in repaying the loans and they are more punctual in paying on time. I am planning to read C K Prahalad's Fortune 500 at the Bottom of Pyramid and I think the Author has similar observatoins.

More difficult was to lend money to poor women. There is an interesting experience. Dr. Yunus receives a letter from the Central Bank of Bangladesh - Pls. explain us the reason why majority of your borrowers are women. Dr. Yunus replied - 'While I will be happy to answer you question, I would like know if the Central Bank has ever questioned any bank as to why majority of their borrowers are Men?'

The manner is which Dr. Yunus persuaded decision makers, built his team, designed the model, worked thru the bureaucracy, worked with poor is remarkably outstanding.

For anyone interested in Micro Finance subject, this book is strongly recommended.

Regards, Rohit

The Richest Man in Babylon

This is one such book you can read it at one go. The lessons for financial prosperity are incorporated in such a nice way throughout the book, in form of interesting tales. There is lot of wisdom in this book and goes on to show that principles for financial success still remain the same, after thousands of years. As an example, keep 1/10th of your earning for yourself, make it a good use so that it multiplies & invest wisely. Given the time period to which the book relates to, the language is bit difficult to get accustomed to, for someone like me. The author, George Clason, has used the theory of learning reinforcement very effectively. You observe the key message getting reinforced time and again throughout the book thru different tales. Strongly recommended !

Happy Reading

Regards, Rohit

Vacation

After a long time, managed to get a break. Had a good time visiting Pondicherry & unwind for 5 days. Read two interesting books. Connect the dots by Rashmi Bansal is in line with her earlier book of Stay Hungry & Stay Foolish. This time she has covered 20 business achievers who do not have an MBA background. Each of the Entrepreneurs narrate their experience as to how they went about it. Very silently, you observe Rashmi's adding her inspiring comments here and there. Yes - this is a book must buy for any one considering getting into his or her own business. While I was on the Airport, picked up another book. My Big Idea by Rachel Bridge. An experience sharing by 30 Entrepreneurs in UK. Both books have similar objective of motivating would be entrepreneurs though Rashmi's book naturally has all Indian touch that we are more familiar with.


Regards, Rohit

Book Reading

Recently read couple of books. 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish' by Rashmi Bansal, 'It happened in India' Co-authored by Kishore Biyani & 'High Performance Entrepreneur' by Subrato Bagchi.

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish is a story about 25 IIM Ahmedabad Graduates who have at some point of time in their career left their high paying jobs & taken a different path. To quote Robert Frost, they took the road less travelled by & that has made all the difference. This book is an outstanding collection of the real life experience of such entrepreneurs. How & why they did it, What problems they faced, What would they advise to others... Truly motivating and inspiring. If you have aspirations of doing something of your own, at some point of time in your life, like I do, this book is must for you !

Subrato Bagchi's book 'High Performance Entrepreneur' is another outstanding piece of Advise to potential entrepreneurs. Yes, the book has lots of instances about how MindTree was setup. But I think it delivers value on a much larger landscape. Subrato has dealt with every possible aspect & minutely. Well, he makes a point with provoking our thinking that it's not only setting up a business but setting up a truly Creative, Professional, Global & Energizing workplace, that really needs a lots of careful thinking & creating planning.

My interest in Kishore Biyani's Book, It Happened in India, started with interest in Retail. It's amazing to read his experience over years. Kishore narrates his experience right from his college days. It's interesting to see his perspective and his calculated bets. Again, he took the road less travelled and the rest, as we all know, is history. The way Kishore has done, in particularly, his speed of execution & style of doing business are very different. As an example, so many times he has gone against the common thinking and invested in say advertising. The way he makes deal with his business partner, seems remarkable to me. Book goes on to state Kishore's reputation in the real estate market. If Kishore likes a property and thinks that rates are reasonable, he says yes. If not, he says no & walks out. Period. Kishore does not bargain. Another interesting aspect the book has been written. In every Chapter, at every few pages, Book carries para or two written by Kishore's relatives, business associates, employees etc.

Regards, Rohit

Quick thoughts : Warren Buffett Book

I recently completed the book 'The essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America' selected, arranged and introduced by Lawrence Cunningham. This is a compilation of carefully categorized thoughts shared by Buffett in his annual letters to Shareholders from 1979 to 2000. Straight from the heart and packed with lot of humor. So lots to observe and learn from the master.

What I learned at the end is the importance of selecting a business with excellent economics & efficient and honest management i.e. to buy a comfortable business at a comfortable price. If you understand and like the business and if you are happy dealing with the management, you may not have a strong reason to sell. Afterall, the master's favorite holding period is forever.

Buffett's thoughts on circle of competence, margin of safety, Accounting, reported financials, usefulness of options as managerial rewards, retained earnings, capital allocation, management control etc. are very useful and open a different perspective.

This does make me re-think about my core portfolio. If Buffett were to select stocks from Indian market, would he choose Yes Bank, NTPC, Reliance Industries, Infosys, MindTree & Petronet LNG? Honestly I don't know. I am still learning and understanding. While this is a never ending process, I hope to be in a better situation few months down the line when I would have completed my first level of investment education i.e. Reading classics on investment basics and valuations.

I hi-lighted many useful portions of the book and infact the pages now look more of fluorecent yellow. I wish I could have written more about what I understood...and may be sometime in future I will do this.

For now, here are some of the many many useful thoughts that I could quickly type out.

1. "....The primary relevant factors are the long-term economic characteristics of a business, the quality and integrity of its management, and future levels of taxation and inflation" Page 10
2. "Intelligent investing is not complex, though that is far from saying that it is easy" Page 94
3. "If the choice is between a questionable business at a comfortable price or a comfortable business at a questionable price, we much prefer the latter. What really gets our attention, however, is a comfortable business at a comfortable price" Page 95
4. "I have said many times that when a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact" Page 98
5. "Beware of past-performance 'proofs' in finance: If history books were key to riches, the Forbest 400 would consist of librarians" Page 105
6. "Promoters, after all, have throughout time exercised the same judgement and restraint in accepting money (capital) that alcoholics have exercised in accepting liquor" Page 113
7. "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful" Page 127
8. "If earnings have been unwisely retained, it is likely that managers, too, have been unwisely retained." Page 135
9. "Our goal is to give you important information in a form that we would wish to get it if our roles were reversed" Page 220