Weekend Reading: Power Of Duality By Rohith

Excerpts:

• “If the moat of a business is akin to a chain, then it is only as strong as its weakest link.”
• On Walmart vs Amazon - Given its (Walmart’s) origins and evolution as an offline retailer, the whole organization was designed to maximize the efficiency in physical retail. The system conditioned for so many years to dominate the physical space could not pivot quickly enough to counter the online competitors. The stupendous success in their field of choice itself sowed seeds of their eventual weakening. 
• “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change." 
• On personal life - And when there is an unexpected passing away of the love it can impact us dramatically in ways un-envisaged. At times it can seem like the love which formed our greatest strength has become our greatest weakness.
  

We can draw several parallels to Indian businesses as well.

• JHS Svendgaard’s excessive reliance on a single marquee client (P&G) resulted in a long period of falling revenues. Its a good case study to understand the importance of reducing client concentration risk.
• Zerodha - which became India’s largest online broker this year is the best example of this theory. Offline brokers did well in reaching out to the smallest of cities but didn’t realize that nobody can reach places like the internet can. Zerodha offers free brokerage for delivery trades and instead only makes money in the high-volume intraday and F&O category. There’s no way offline brokers can pivot to this model.
• The biggest asset of the 2 leading political parties from Tamil Nadu were the charisma of their leaders. They would win election after election and leave no space for smaller parties to grow. We all know what has happened after they passed away.