I. I was first introduced to Texas Instruments by my dearest high school friend: Only years later would I learn that this wonder was but a thin product sliver within the TI complex, lumped in the stagnant “Other” catch-all segment that today accounts for just 5% of profits, with the other 95% coming from analog […]
I. Every few years, this graphic from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), reproduced by Matthew Ball, makes the rounds: It shows how a 15-year decline in recorded music revenue, precipitated by the cannibalistic effect of free downloads, is being reversed by the rise of subscription fees from digital streaming providers (DSPs). As I […]
Let’s say a parts supplier needs to get a full trailer of parts from its facility in Boston, MA to an OEM manufacturing plant in Los Angeles, CA. One way to do this would be to hire a full truckload (FTL or just TL) carrier, most of them owner-operators with 1 to 5 trucks in […]
Customers are the lifeblood a business and Salesforce touches just about every nook of software that has anything to do with finding, acquiring, and supporting them. The grandaddy of SaaS, Salesforce pioneered a cloud-hosted subscription model that altered not only when software vendors realize revenue but how they create value. With one-and-done license sales replaced […]
(all $ is USD unless noted otherwise; CAD figures are converted to USD at $1 USD: $1.28 CAD) The waste management business isn’t hard to understand conceptually, though to get a felt sense of the territory probably requires a bunch ground level inside knowledge because the competitive dynamics differ so much by market. Still, the […]
When a car gets into accident, an insurer must decide whether to repair it or cut a check to the claimant for the pre-accident value and recoup whatever it can by sending the car to a salvage auction. In the US, that salvage auction is most likely operated by Copart or IAA, who each handle […]
A few weeks ago, I did an interview with Mirakle, a Korean language business newsletter (link) Below is the English version: Thank you so much for the opportunity – My first language is not English and although I have learned English for 6 years in regular school system in South Korea, my written English may […]
Related posts: [KMX – CarMax; CVNA – Carvana] Moat, Growth, and Competition (Mar. 30, 2018) [CVNA – Carvana] Fat tail investing (Aug. 13, 2020) As previously discussed, the cost structure of used car retailing has become less variable, more fixed over the years. CarMax pioneered this transition in the early ‘90s, applying the lessons of […]
