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Checklist Manifesto

Software industry has instilled healthy disgust for checklist as we were using checklist for various activities in the project development life cycle. I am not sure if anyone had (has) done the study to measure the improvement from uses of checklist in software development process. Irrespective, people on the ground used to, I think they continue to, treat using checklist as grunt work. Invariably checklist used to have over 25 points and people just used to check it without much thought. But people had to use as most of the software company were on journey to become CMM-5 certified and had to ensure they have processes defined and tracked as per guidelines. With this background, when I first saw the book ‘Checklist Manifesto’ by Atul Gawande I thought it is another book with all the nice sounding tools and techniques to make your life easy, theoretically, but quite unpractical. But when I read few positive reviews about the book, I decided to read it. I just finished it reading and am...
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Swaraj Engine - Good opportunity with 3-5 years perspective

Swaraj Engines Ltd. (SEL) is a joint venture between erstwhile Punjab Tractors Ltd. (PTL), which has since been merged with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) and Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd., now known as Kirloskar Industries Ltd. Originally set up to manufacture engines for PTL, SEL has also been a supplier of hi-tech engine components to Swaraj Mazda Ltd. (SML). Since start of commercial operations in 1989-90, SEL has supplied around 3,57,000 engines for fitment into “Swaraj” tractors. SEL’s engine business currently constitutes some 93% of Company’s product revenue. Balance 7% represents value of hitech engine components being supplied to SML for assembly of commercial vehicle engines. Industry Analysis Despite a low penetration level of tractors, Indian tractor market is one of the largest markets in the world in terms of sales volume. The domestic tractor industry is fragmented, with about 13 national players and some regional players. The domestic tractor market is traditional...
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Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd

Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW) is India’s largest textile spinning machinery manufacturer. The company’s business is organized into three business segments - textile machinery division (TMD), Machine Tools Division (MTD) and Foundry division (Foundry). Besides they have small operation in Wind Energy and has Advance Technology Center. The textile machinery business accounts for almost 85% of LMW’s revenues with remaining 15% contributed by machine tools and foundry businesses. LMW is one of the three leading textile machinery manufacturers in the world (the other two being Rieter and Marzoli). The company has been one of the prime catalysts of the textile spinning industry in India, commanding more than 50% share of the spinning machinery industry. LMW has maintained its credibility and stronghold on the industry across business cycles while maintaining its credit terms intact. Industry Analysis India's textile sector is trying to come out of one the toughest period due to...
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Bharat Bijlee

Bharat Bijlee manufactures and distributes transformers, motors, and drivers for escalator but major revenue comes from transformers. It has been generating positive operating cash flow over the last 7-8 years, has been paying dividend and don’t have to make significant investment in next 2-3 years. It has also made little non-strategic investment over the year amounting to 400-450/Share at current market price. It operates in a pretty much commoditized industry (transformer up 220 Kv) and faces significant cost and margin pressure. It has done commendable job in managing cost and has improved productivity to manage profitability but future remains uncertain. In FY10 its revenue increased to 655 Cr from 545 Cr in FY 09 but PAT came down to 41 Cr from 48 Cr in FY09. Company has leadership position in 220KV is trying to expand the product portfolio. The company has a plan to upgrade the plant for manufacturing 132 / 220 KV transformers and intends to increase focus on project bus...
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Blue Star

Today I am discussing about the 2nd stock in my portfolio. I bought the stock around 9-12 months back at an average price of 260. The price has moved significantly since then but I think it is one of best stock ideas I have for long term perspective. Blue Star is a leading player in centralized air conditioning, Electro Mechanical Projects and has grown 5 times over last decade as IT/ITES companies expended their operation significantly. IT/ITES companies’ growth have slowed down in the last 2-3 years and are likely to remain in single digit or low double digit over next few years. Blue Star has to depend on investment on other industry sectors to grow at the rate it has been growing over last few years. Fortunately, many sectors in India are the cusp of breaking out which should help Blue Star to maintain its growth at around 20-25% over next 5 years. Management has also been trying – organically and in-organically – to expand the portfolio of services to become one-stop stop for all ...
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Gruh Finance

I have been trying to blog on and off for last year and half but have not blogged much. Investing has been new found passion, probably the only passion, of my life and I spend most of my discretionalry time on this passion. In the coming weeks, I will try to explian the reason and rationale for owning stocks I have in my portfolio. I hope it may be of some help to someone out there. About Company Gruh Finance is a subsidiary of HDFC primarily catering to lending loans to people with non-steady income sources (non-salaried class) for purchase and repair of houses in tier 2 & 3 cities. They started the operation in Maharashtra and Gujarat and since then have expanded the business Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. They disburse around 65% of loans to Gujarat and Maharashtra so have significant upside in other states. GRUH has formulated a risk management framework which lays the procedure for risk assessment and mitigation. The Risk Management Commit...
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Sensex - what does it mean

The market has been gyrating between 16000 to 18000 for quite some time and depending on who are you speaking to it can either go upto 25000 in next 18 months or do down to 12000 in the same period. I have been wondering for quite sometime, what does sensex really means. As far I am concerned it is index based on 30 companies drawn from various industry. Well, they have tried to make sure weightages from various industry correspends to their weighatges in economy. It is also implicitly assumes that if particular industry has to grow dominant company (sensex representative company) in that industry also has to grow. It assume we can't have an industry growth driven by many smaller players, consolidation is the name of the game. As far I am concerned, I think value of Sensex is immaterial for investors. Investors are the business owners and should look at the potential growth of the companies they are owning vis-a-vis price they are paying. As long as they don't get carried away...
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