Too Many Managers, Not Enough Value Creation
The biggest risk facing many companies is not valuation; it is organisational complexity. Airtasker's Tim Fung on why scale and capability are not the same thing.
Latest
The Founder Effect: China and Hong Kong 2026
Founder-led China A-shares returned 13.75% a year from 2020 to 2026 against 0.63% for the China all-cap index. Hong Kong went the other way.
The Founder Effect: Annual Report 2026
Founder-led companies returned 17.10% a year from 2016 to 2026 against 13.53% for the benchmark, with higher volatility and a deeper drawdown.
Why Elon Musk's pay packet is justified
The headline number is absurd; the structure is not. Three questions to ask of any CEO remuneration plan.
Netflix's Warner Move Shows Why Decision-Making Beats Scale
Reed Hastings no longer runs Netflix, but the decision-making system he built is what made the Warner move possible.
What Optus and ANZ can teach investors about founder-led companies
Optus and ANZ were not unlucky. Both failures trace back to how decisions get made inside large bureaucracies.
Want World-Leading Businesses? Start With Longer CEO Pay Deals
Ninety-six per cent of ASX 200 chief executives received a bonus last year. The problem is not the size of the pay; it is the timeframe.
Where the Founders Are Putting Money to Work
Goodman, Atlassian and Hyundai are committing capital on decade-long horizons. Where founders allocate is rarely accidental.
The DNA of long-term compounding machines
Four observable markers of founder behaviour, and the Australian companies quietly displaying them.
Nvidia's CEO is selling. Here's why Aussie investors should care
Jensen Huang's selldown is small in percentage terms, but insider selling near peak valuations has a well-documented record.
Why Founder-Led Firms Are the Real Safe Haven in Volatile Times
In the last real stress test, founder-led firms rebounded almost six times harder than companies run by hired executives.
Productivity Reform Will Fail Without Rethinking Corporate Decision-Making
Canva is now worth more than Telstra. The productivity debate keeps ignoring the thing that explains why.
Governance
Visionary or Liability: How to Protect your Portfolio Against Bad Founders
Richard White sold on 43 of the 92 days in the December 2024 quarter. Mineral Resources is down 70% since May 2024. The sell signals were visible first.
Governance
Four signs a founder-led company isn't worth the hype
Investors confuse charisma for capability. Four observable warning signs, and what WiseTech shareholders could have seen coming.
Evidence
Lessons from the rise and fall of founder-led companies
Founder presence alone does not guarantee success. Three red flags, and what Fastly and Cloudflare reveal about which founder-led companies endure.
Founder interviews
How Gance drives success at Chemist Warehouse
Jack Gance still reads weekly sales reports for every store. Psychological ownership is the invisible driver, and it is why a founder knows the buyers by name.
Evidence
Decoding the DNA of exceptional companies
Value creation is the accumulation of management decisions. What Hermès reveals about bold decision-making, and the three tests of an effective executive team.
Founder interviews
Graham Turner on lessons from 40+ years of Flight Centre, Part 2
How Flight Centre went global, the mistakes Turner learned from, the psychology behind the ‘tribes’ model, and his criteria for acquisitions.
Founder interviews
Graham Turner on lessons from 40+ years of Flight Centre
Graham ‘Skroo’ Turner on the obstacles behind Flight Centre’s rise from a single shop in 1982 to a global business.
Methodology
Applying a capital allocator's mindset to business success in the resources industry
Mining CEO tenure averaged 4.4 years from 2010-2019 while a greenfield development takes 15. Australian LTIs are 36% of CEO pay against 75% in America.
Founder interviews
The rise and rise of Chemist Warehouse
Part two: Jack Gance on competition, expansion, and why a proven model beats an untested one.
Founder interviews
Chemist Warehouse founder reveals his success secrets
Jack Gance on building Chemist Warehouse into Australia's dominant pharmacy retailer. Part one of two.
Founder interviews
Founder Interview: The founder who beat the banks at their own game (Part 2)
Part two: the strategies Barry Lambert used to scale Count Financial, and his view on what makes management effective.
Founder interviews
Founder Interview: The founder who beat the banks at their own game (Part 1)
Barry Lambert built Count Financial from a side project into a business CBA paid $373 million for. Part one of two.