What makes a company truly outstanding? What is the secret sauce of delivering successful results over multiple decades? What is common to Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Marico, Berger Paints, Page Industries and Astral Poly? They are Unusual Companies, built by Unusual Billionaires. This book tells the story of these seven companies, handpicked out of 5000 listed on the stock exchange. Built by visionary business leaders, they have delivered outstanding results for a decade and more. How did these companies do it? Why couldn’t this be replicated by other companies? What are they doing differently? Saurabh Mukherjea, bestselling author of Gurus of Chaos, delivers an exceptional book with lessons to learn from these seven businesses. Mukherjea tells you why focusing on the core business is central to corporate success and how a promoter giving up control to the top management could be a boon. He also explains how investors can generate market-beating investment returns from identifying companies such as these using a simple set of metrics. Packed with these learnings are riveting corporate stories of how Hindustan Unilever made an aggressive bid to buy Harsh Mariwala’s business, but had to sell a business to him in a few years, or how Page Industries found an innovative way to stop unionization at their manufacturing units. Other stories include the turnaround of Axis Bank and the boardroom coup that led to its chairman’s exit and how Vijay Mallya sold Berger Paints to the Dhingra brothers. This book is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand how business is done successfully in India.

What does it take to be a stock market guru? What are the traits needed to be a successful investor? Can one master the stock market or is it a gift one is born with? How does one build a portfolio and protect it? Learn from the masters. The Indian stock market is many things to many people. Some are drawn to its thrill and promise but, more often than not, they fail to recognize the risk that accompanies the reward of a great ride. For many, the market and its workings defy logic and mastery. However, within the universe of market watchers in India, there is a small group that has managed to build a fine set of navigation tools and develop a unique perspective and approach towards the market. They have created and institutionalized investment strategies based on their experiences and philosophies. Saurabh Mukherjea delves into the minds of seven such individuals asking them to elaborate on the tools they use and how these work. He traces their journey from being novices to successful long-term investors. Using their insights and his own experience of working in the market for nearly a decade, Mukherjea provides an essential and indispensable framework for operating in the Indian stock market. The interviews with prominent fund managers in the book are: · Sanjoy Bhattacharya · Alroy Lobo · Akash Prakash · Sankaran Naren · Sashi Reddy · BN Manjunath · One who prefers to remain anonymous

India's economy has tripled in size over the past twenty years. And yet, the generation that propelled this growth is facing rising levels of stress and depression. Furthermore, the new generation entering the workforce today dreams big but faces a highly competitive work environment. How can both these generations fire on all cylinders and lead fulfilling lives? This book attempts to answer this question by using the principles of Simplicity, Specialization, Creativity and Collaboration. It delves into a treasure trove of material from global gurus as well as from highly successful Indian and American professionals, and it draws on the authors' own careers to show how readers can apply these principles to the fields of business and investment, even to life itself. The Victory Project is the ultimate guide to surviving and thriving in the professional and social domains, which are increasingly becoming tough, competitive, often cutthroat and deeply political.

Over the last few years, there has been a growing realization among Indians that their life's savings, the bulk of which are parked in physical assets like real estate and gold, are unlikely to help them generate sufficient returns to fund their financial goals, including retirement. At the same time, many have lost their hard-earned money trying to invest in financial assets, including debt and equities. Such losses have occurred due to many reasons, such as corporate frauds, weak business models and misallocation of capital by the companies in whose shares unsuspecting investors parked their savings. What options do Indian savers then have to invest in, and build their wealth? Diamonds in the Dust offers Indian savers a simple, yet highly effective, investment technique to identify clean, well-managed Indian companies that have consistently generated outsized returns for investors. Based on in-depth research conducted by the award-winning team at Marcellus Investment Managers, it uses case studies and charts to help readers learn the art and science of investing in the US$3 trillion Indian stock market. The book also debunks many notions of investing that have emerged from the misguided application of Western investment theories in the Indian context. Vital and indispensable, this book will serve as the ultimate manual on investing and provide practical counsel to readers to achieve their financial goals.

Most people invest in the usual assets: real estate, gold, mutual funds, fixed deposits and stock markets. It's always the same four or five instruments. All they end up making is a measly 8 to 12 per cent per annum. Those who are exceptionally unfortunate get stuck in the middle of a crash and end up losing a lot of money. What if there was another way? What if you could make not 10 not 15 but 20 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) on your investments? What if there was a way to grow your money four to five times whilst taking half the risk compared to the overall market? Bestselling author of Gurus of Chaos and The Unusual Billionaires, Saurabh Mukherjea puts his money where his mouth is. Saurabh follows the Coffee Can approach to high-quality, low-risk investing. His firm, Ambit Capital, is one the largest wealth managers in India which invests with this approach and delivers stupendous returns. In Coffee Can Investing, Saurabh will show you how to go about low-risk investments that generate great returns.

Asian Paints is India’s largest paints company and its early history is hardly known; even less is known about how Champaklal Choksey and his friends made Asian Paints the largest paints company in as far back as 1967. There are many lessons that are relevant even today – from investing in high quality talent to separating management and ownership. Most importantly, there are very few books that show how honest businessmen can – and should – build large-scale institutions that endure beyond their lifetime, just as Champaklal Choksey has done. This book tells the story of an iconic institution and its less-known but visionary founder.