Questioning makes you wise

I am reading an interesting book these days – “A more beautiful question”. The proportion in the book is that our ability to ask better questions will make us more intelligent in the emerging world.

Today information is readily available on tap. So knowledge need not be accumulated in our minds. We simply need to know how to tap it.

So just like we exercise our body, do we spend time training our mind to ask the right questions? Do we really have this skill of asking questions that can lead to some breakthrough learning? Are we brave enough to ask to these questions in a group setting? Are we able to get over our lethargy and learn the right skills that would be relevant in a fast changing world? Are we humble enough to accept that sometimes we need help of experts to ask the right questions?

Today knowing the answers is not enough – it is our ability to raise the correct questions that lead us to the answers is more important.

Cornering of Wealth

Recently I read a very interesting news item. “India’s richest 1% corner 73% of wealth in the country” screamed the headlines. The socialist mind immediately declared this to be unfair. The political mind thought about blaming this on the opposition. The spiritual mind said it is all about your karmas. But the Capitalist mind, the Economist mind had some different thoughts.

What do you mean by “corner”? The richest person in India is Mukesh Ambani. What does he do with his wealth? He has created multiple businesses that generate employment and make a large contribution to the GDP. So did he “corner” the wealth or did he “channelize” the wealth? Let’s imagine it is my Rs.1 million that he has cornered. What would I have done with this Rs.1 million. Most probably I would have spent it on a good holiday in a foreign country or maybe I would have bought some jewellery, etc. So is that form of “mini cornering” better than the “mega cornering” by Mukesh Bhai?

Just a thought – in some cases “mega cornering” is better than “mini cornering”. Sometimes we pool our mini investments and make a mega corpus managed by a Mutual Fund that provides this mega pool to the Entrepreneurs who can dream big. So does mini become better when it is pooled to become mega? Just thinking.

Business Audit

A client recently came to us, after setting up a new project. He is in a tight spot. The actual results are far far away from the projections that were made in over enthusiastic zeal. And today he is worried. There is no working capital to fund the initial losses, nor does he have funds to make the necessary tweaks to the project.

This is what went wrong:

1. The projections were made without any scientific basis. Simply because I am offering a product does not mean I will be able to sell. Even assumption of 10% capacity utilization can be wrong if demand is 0%.
2. No sensitivity analysis was done to test the product if one or all assumptions did not work out as projected.
3. The Entrepreneur himself had no experience about the new business that he was starting. He did not do sufficient homework.
4. Even the investors that he roped in, (who happened to be his friends) did not grill him about the various assumptions that were made.
5. He did not leave sufficient room for flexibility in the project. Entire 100% project was implemented based on personal fancy without any market survey.
6. Pricing in a Tier 2 city can be different from that in Tier 1 city. People might not have the ability and/or the willingness to pay the price that people in Tier 1 city pay.

 

However, the fundamental mistake was NOT having a business auditor who would question him. Just because you are the owner does not mean that your decisions cannot be questioned. Many times asking the right questions is more important than knowing the answers. If you cannot ask these questions, then better engage a professional and give him the right to question your decisions.

Stock & Real Estate

I have friends in the stock market who confidently give advice on the real estate market. They are real experts in the stock market and that gives them the extreme confidence to make predictions about the property market. Most of the times, they have been proven to be wrong. That is because of the fundamental difference in these two asset classes.

1. Stock market is totally organised and transparent. All transactions are routed through a central exchange and are visible to all parties. Just imagine if there was a need to list all properties on a single exchange and all transactions had to be compulsorily routed through this exchange. The property market would undergo a drastic transformation with this one single change.
2. Stocks are pure investments. Real estate is consumption plus investment. Hence there are a lot of emotions involved in the real estate market. A person who is comfortable in Bandra (West) will not move to Bandra (East) even if there is a chance of higher appreciation in Bandra (East).
3. In real estate many times the supply is limited in certain micro markets. Hence the general rules might not apply in certain areas. To some extent, this also applies to the stock market. However, in stock market majority owners would be willing to sell at a certain price. This might not hold true in the real estate market.
4. Stock markets are ruled by fundamentals and technicals. In the real estate market, there is no place for technical charts.
5. I once heard Osho saying that unless you know God, you should not talk about him; you will ruin people’s lives. The same applies to stock market pundits who confidently advice people about real estate!