Discovery is the thrill of investing
“Discovery is one of the joys of life and, in our opinion, is one of the real thrills of the investment process.”
Business
Costco's edge is many people caring more
“[The firm’s advantage is] thousands of people caring about thousands of things a little more, perhaps, than may occur at other retailers.”
Cultures of thrift are hard to create
“Cultures that care about the little things all the time are very hard to create and, in the opinion of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, almost impossible to create if not put in place at the firm’s genesis.”
A million little actions are hard to beat
“Contrast [a drug company] with a scale economics business: To better an incumbent’s cost base a rival would have to be superior at, not one thing, but a million little actions – a far harder task.”
Many small edges make success more predictable
“At the Welsh insurance company the penny dropped: firms that have a process to do many things a little better than their rivals may be less risky than firms that do one thing right because their future success is more predictable.”
Early success raises the odds of more
“We would propose that some businesses, once they have progressed down the first favourable branch, stand a much greater chance of progressing down the second favourable branch, and then the third, as a virtuous feedback loop builds.”