What are your reading goals in 2023? Here are the books we read and liked in the last 12 months, and the ones we shared thorough our Marcellus Book of the Month recos. What did you read and like in 2022 and recommend we should read too?
🧵 👇 #MarcellusBOTM #Reading#books
Jan: "Zero to One" by Peter Thiel
Read it today if you haven't already. The book gives a fresh perspective on building a successful business. We ourselves have sought inspiration from the book in starting and building Marcellus.
Feb: “The Platform Delusion: Who Wins and Who Loses in the Age of Tech Titans” by Jonathan Knee.
The book questions the moats of FAANG stocks, arguing that they are far weaker than commonly accepted. And we all know what's happened in the last few months!
Jun: "Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy" by Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The book discusses the recent evolution of Indian banking, esp misses in governance & regulatory frameworks & what issues eventually led to a ‘tragedy’
Nov: “Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology” by Chris Miller
The book (on multiple 2022 Book of the Year lists) traces the microchip from its early development to its evolution as the source of serious geopolitical conflict today
Tamal Bandyopadhyay’s ‘Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy’ is our Marcellus Book of the Month. The book discusses the recent evolution of Indian banking, esp misses in governance & regulatory frameworks & what issues eventually led to a ‘tragedy’
The book beautifully captures complex issues in Indian banking, like the Asset Quality Review (AQR), inherent problems with PSBs, serious fraud cases, etc. The book weaves through insights from the viewpoint of the regulator, bankers, economists & industry veterans
(2/11)
Part I takes us through the hard AQR (a global first) pill the sector had to swallow, followed by the IL&FS saga and the core problem of borrowing short & lending long (which unsurprisingly isn't an India specific problem), resulting in the eventual demise of DHFL
Continuing our book recos on how companies can build competitive advantages for the digital age, this time around our Marcellus Book of the Month is ‘Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age’ by Ram Charan & Geri Willigan.
Competitive advantages have been traditionally built around controlled distribution channels, hard assets at scale, on established brands or patents. These are being challenged by new age companies. What are the new rules of the game that traditional companies must adopt?
(2/)
Rule #1: Personalize the consumer experience. Today’s leaders are so laser focused on the consumer that they can create a 100x market that doesn’t exist! They combine pieces of existing industries which the end consumer can’t connect by herself. Eg. Steve Jobs & the iPhone
(3/)
If you are investing (or are planning to) in consumer tech companies you must read Jonathan Knee’s “The Platform Delusion”, our Marcellus Book of the Month. The book questions the moats of FAANG stocks, arguing that they are far weaker than commonly accepted
You might disagree with some of the arguments made in the book, but its core proposition has been convincingly made with detailed research. It debunks some of the basic drivers of competitive advantage for consumer tech businesses that many have come to assume for granted.
(2/8)
Many of these cos make little or no money coz *barriers to entry* are low. Vertically specialised independent retailers have taken away from Amazon the most profitable parts of online retail + they are more profitable! Same with Netflix. Read this 👉bit.ly/331rEaz
India’s booming start-up ecosystem birthed over 40 unicorns in 2021! Its thus a good time to revisit Peter Thiel’s ‘Zero to One’, which is our Marcellus Book of the Month. We ourselves have sought inspiration from the book in starting and building Marcellus. #MarcellusBOTM
(1/7)
The book gives a fresh perspective on building a successful business. For this, companies must invest in the difficult task of creating new things (0 to 1) rather than trying to achieve just incremental progress or improvement on things already being done (1 to n).
(2/7)
Going from Zero to 1 allows you to monopolize your markets and that is the only wat to build lasting success in a business. Thiel’s mantras of ‘start small’, ‘do not disrupt’ and ‘be the last mover’ are super counter-intuitive insights on building and scaling a business.
Marcellus's #3Longs3Shorts this week: An interview with Ravi Ashwin, the age of 'techno-politics' and why Peter Thiel is such an influential thinker are amongst our 6 curated picks to read this week.
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LR1: R Ashwin: ‘I’ve always been good at assessing batsmen, but now I think I’ve taken it to another level | Sidharth Monga interviews R Ashvin | Cricinfo
Here are the books we read, and in many cases reread in 2021. These were featured in Marcellus Book of the Month, a series we started in March this year.
Which ones did you read too and liked the most? Please let us know!