This week’s podcast is about combining two previously covered topics: growth and the digital operating basics. This can be surprisingly powerful. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Most of the growth thinking is a summary of work by Chris Zook at Bain’s strategy practice. I am citing the books: Profit from the Core Beyond the Core He argues most all sustainable growth is based on 1-2 strong cores that continually adapt. A profitable core is centered on the str...
Apr 04, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 122
This week’s podcast is about Southeast Asian tech giant Grab, its impressive execution and its chronic unprofitability. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition —–- Related articles: Growth, ROIC / RONIC and Growth + Sales in Digital Valuation (Asia Tech Strategy – Podcast 102) An Intro to Growth and “Birds in the Bush” in Digital Va...
Mar 25, 2022•54 min•Season 1Ep. 121
This week’s podcast is about how web 3.0 is creating three types of marketplaces: Digital platforms (web 2.0), such as a Taobao Platform-protocol hybrids, such as Coinbase Protocol networks, such as Uniswap You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition —–- Related articles: How to Think About Web 3.0 Business Models (1 of 2) (Asia Tech St...
Mar 12, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 120
This week’s podcast is about customer capture as a competitive advantage. And how digital is really changing this type of moat. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition ---—– From the Concept Library , concepts for this article are: CA1: Share of Consumer Mind, Share of User Mind and User Capture Competitive Advantages From the Compa...
Mar 02, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 119
This week’s podcast is about Nike in China. But it really about how you win as a participant in large platform businesses in ecommerce and social media. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition ---—– From the Concept Library , concepts for this article are: Digital Complments SMILE Marathon: Ecosystem Orchestration or Participation D...
Feb 17, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 118
This week’s podcast is about web 3.0. I view most successful web 3.0 companies like Coinbase as platform-protocol hybrids. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . ------ From the Concept Library , concepts for this article are: Protocol Networks Platform-Protocol Hybrids / Web 3.0 From the Company Library , companies for this article are: Coinbase ------- I write and speak about digital competition and China / Asia’s leading tech companies. My book Moats and Marath...
Feb 06, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 117
This week’s podcast is about Nubank, Brazil's rapidly rising digital bank. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition Here are my 5 predictions for Nubank 2.0 #1: Nubank Could Offer Asset-Lite Credit Services #2: Nubank Could Create a Complementary Marketplace Platform for Investment and Insurance Products #3: Nubank Will Go Cross...
Jan 25, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 116
This week’s podcast is about Barriers to Entry, which is one of my 6 levels of competition. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition Most of my favorite businesses have key operating assets that can’t be easily built, bought, or transferred. This turns out to be an interesting list. Think about: Reputation, loyalty, and love. Persona...
Jan 16, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 115
This week’s podcast is about SenseTime, which is a leader in computer vision in China / Asia. It's a fascinating company for looking at the evolving business models of AI software. The two big questions are: What are the unit economics of large AI companies? What types of scale advantages and network effects do large AI companies? You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Adv...
Jan 06, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 114
This week’s podcast is about my discussion with Abel Deng, the CEO of Huawei Thailand. And about how the next generation of digital infrastructure is developing in SE Asia. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition -——— Related articles: Huawei Is Going to Beat Trump with Human Resources, Not Technology (Pt 1 of 3) Huawei’s Employee S...
Dec 29, 2021•48 min•Season 1Ep. 113
This week’s podcast is about Snowflake and Confluent. But the main topic is how to think about coordination, collaboration and standardization (CCS) platform business models. And the 4 types of these platforms. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition I’ve now started breaking this into 4 sub-types of CCS platforms. They are: Communi...
Dec 20, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 112
This week’s podcast is about the external view and the importance of base rates. Berkshire-invested Kroger supermarkets is a good example of a company that can really be viewed externally. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book: Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition Common metrics for base rates: Sales growth Gross profitability (gross profits / assets) Operating levera...
Dec 10, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 111
This week’s podcast is about ANE Logistics, which is a compelling business model for digitizing and consolidating less than truckload logistics in China. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book (released December 1): Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition My questions for ANE Logistics: Does a franchised logistics network with digital connectivity lower the barrier to ent...
Dec 02, 2021•51 min•Season 1Ep. 110
This week’s podcast is Brazilian Stone Company (STNE), the Berkshire Hathaway-invested payment platform that has fallen in share price by +80%. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book (released December 1): Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition ——- Related articles: Brazilian Stone Co, Chinese Ant, and American Square Are All Building Complementary Payment Platforms (1 o...
Nov 25, 2021•48 min•Season 1Ep. 109
This week’s podcast is about how to assess specialty companies within enterprise software and services. And about Tuya, which an interesting example of a specialty B2B play. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book (released December 1): Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition Here are my 5 questions (thus far) for assessing the viability of a specialty ecommerce company. I...
Nov 18, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 108
This week’s podcast is about Alibaba and Singles' Day. Just my thoughts on what really matters. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book (released December 1): Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition My list of 7 things people are getting wrong about Singles' Day: Business model is about building demand-side scale. This is also about economies of scale as a relati...
Nov 10, 2021•33 min•Season 1Ep. 107
This week’s podcast is more about Snowflake, the “data ecosystem” company. And how multiple companies are competing to create the standards and architecture for cloud services. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book (released December 1): Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition ---—- Related articles: Snowflake is Building 3 Complementary Platforms with 4 Network Effects ...
Nov 02, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 106
This week’s podcast is about Snowflake, the "data ecosystem" company. It is one of the most compelling digital business models out there. It is one of the few companies that could become the next Google or Microsoft. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my new book (released December 1): Moats and Marathons (Part 1): How to Build and Measure Competitive Advantage in Digital Businesses Kindle Edition A summary of the Digital Operating Basics : S...
Oct 26, 2021•47 min•Season 1Ep. 105
This week’s podcast is about core vs. adjacency growth. This is a good framework for thinking about growth in digital businesses. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Most of this is a summary of work by Chris Zook at Bain's strategy practice. I am citing the books: Profit from the Core Beyond the Core Most all sustainable growth is based on 1-2 strong cores. A profitable core is centered on the strongest position in terms of loyal customers, competitive ad...
Oct 19, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 104
This week’s podcast is about how digital impacts society, business, news and politics. And how centralized planning might be the best solution in a digital world. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . ----— Related articles: Valuation Like Warren Buffett in 1 Slide (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Lesson / Update) An Intro to Digital Valuation (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Lesson / Update) Why DCF Sucks for Digital Valuation. (Asia Tech Strategy – Podcast 101) From the ...
Oct 12, 2021•47 min•Season 1Ep. 103
This week’s podcast is about growth and how it relates to value and valuation. ROIC vs. RONIC is an important part of separating past and continuing value. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . —---- Related articles: Valuation Like Warren Buffett in 1 Slide (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Lesson / Update) An Intro to Digital Valuation (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Lesson / Update) Why DCF Sucks for Digital Valuation. (Asia Tech Strategy – Podcast 101) From the Concept...
Oct 04, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 102
This week’s podcast is about how to apply DCF in valuations of digital companies. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . For the tennis ball story and DCF details, here are the slides. –---- Related articles: Valuation Like Warren Buffett in 1 Slide (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Lesson / Update) An Intro to Digital Valuation (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Lesson / Update) From the Concept Library , concepts for this article are: Valuation: Digital Discounted Cash Flow ...
Sep 28, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 101
This week’s podcast is about Hillhouse Capital and how they are buying and digitizing Chinese and increasingly Asian companies. I talk about their deals with Belle and Gree. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my summary of digital operating basics (Dr. Ram’s book combined with some of my own thinking): Scale and growth at small incremental cost. Continuous personalization and customer-facing innovation. A digital core for operations . Ecosystem and con...
Sep 19, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 100
This week’s podcast is my second on Ram Charan’s new book “ Rethinking Competition Advantage “. I think it has a lot of great insights about the basics of digital operations. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my summary of digital operating basics (Dr. Ram’s book combined with some of my own thinking): Scale and growth at small incremental cost. Continuous personalization and customer-facing innovation. A digital core for operations . Ecosystem and co...
Sep 12, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 99
This week’s podcast is about Ram Charan's new book " Rethinking Competition Advantage ". I think it has a lot of great insights about the basics of digital operations. But not much about competitive advantage. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here is my interpretation of the book's digital operating basics: A personalized consumer experience is key to continued growth. Continually innovating on the consumer experience enables cross-sellin...
Sep 06, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 98
This week’s podcast is about assessing specialty ecommerce companies (i.e,. the anteaters) vs. the ecommerce giants (i.e,. the lions). Which will survive? Which will thrive? You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . Here are my 5 questions (thus far) for assessing the viability of a specialty ecommerce company. Is the company sufficiently differentiated in the user experience? Can the company compete and/or differentiate in logistics or infrastructure without ongoing...
Aug 29, 2021•53 min•Season 1Ep. 97
This week’s podcast is about the recent political issues around China tech and Alibaba in particular. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . —— Related articles: Can Foodpanda / Delivery Hero Get to Profitable Scale in On-Demand Food? (Asia Tech Strategy – Daily Lesson / Update) Meituan vs. Ctrip vs. Alibaba: Who Will Win in China Services? (Jeff’s Asia Tech Class – Podcast 22) From the Concept Library , concepts for this article are: Role of the State Uncertainty...
Aug 22, 2021•40 min•Season 1Ep. 96
This week’s podcast is about Ctrip, Didi and their current situation as subscale services marketplaces in China. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes and Google Podcasts . 4 Reasons Didi and Ctrip should merge: They are both subscale in B2C digital China Both are exposed. And industry barriers in services are shifting and falling. They are complementary in terms of users, usage, data and cash flow. Meituan is coming. It is likely it will enter ride-sharing, just like it did in accomm...
Aug 15, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 95
This week’s podcast is about how to profit from political involvement in China tech. But really it is about how to think systematically about the role of the State. And about how to benefit from the State as the mother-of-all catalysts. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes , Google Podcasts and Himalaya . Here is the marketing material for OShares OGIGX. OGIGX Index Presentation 2021Q2- June 2021 end Here is the Standard Digital Playbook : Target a 10x or 100x market opportunity. Gro...
Aug 09, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 94
This week’s podcast is about how to profit from political involvement in China tech. But really it is about how to think systematically about the role of the State. And about how to benefit from the State as the mother-of-all catalysts. You can listen to this podcast here or at iTunes , Google Podcasts and Himalaya . Ways to profit from State involvement: Ride the big waves from top-down initiatives Copy Cheah Chang Hye (Value Partners). Buy and sell unfollowed and obscure China bargains. Demand...
Aug 04, 2021•50 min•Season 1Ep. 93
