Our weekly thoughts and general ramblings about everything related to business – from industries and investments to management and operations.

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Three Things

Our first post of the year always revisits three core concepts that continue to shape our thinking. Dare to Be Great Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital is one of the great writers on the investment process. We enjoy reading each of his very popular memos. Early in 2014, he published Dare to Be Great II which, building on the original Dare to Be Great, discussed the necessary conditions for exceptional investment performance. From the memo: "For years I’ve posed the following riddle: Suppose I hire you as a portfolio manager and we agree you will get no compensation next year

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Weekly Thoughts: Three Things

Here are three things, first printed in 2015, that continue to shape our thinking: Dare to Be Great Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital is one of the great writers on the investment process.  We enjoy reading each of his very popular memos.  Early in 2014, he published Dare to Be Great II which, building on the original Dare to Be Great, discussed the necessary conditions for exceptional investment performance.  From the memo: "For years I’ve posed the following riddle: Suppose I hire you as a portfolio manager and we agree you will get no compensation next year if your return is in the bottom nine

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Weekly Thoughts: Q-Tips

Here is something that caught our eye this week: Q-Tips A post,  first written in 2016, about not following the crowd.   In 1923, Leo Gerstenzang saw his wife pierce a cotton ball with a toothpick and use the resulting tool to delicately clean their baby. It was the aha moment that gave birth to the then named Q-Tip Baby Gay. First marketed as a sterile baby care product (they were originally dipped in boric acid), Q-Tips have been, and remain, a dominant brand in personal care, with estimated US sales of $208 million in 2014, up from $190 million

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