Back in 2012, the chief financial officer of a small US retailer told us that he did not know the price differential between a pack of tennis balls purchased at his store relative to one bought on Amazon. Moreover, the answer “it didn’t matter” was a huge indicator to management’s lack of peripheral foresight and planning. We sold out of this stock immediately on the view that the management team had failed to grasp the existential threat Amazon presented to their business model.
In the US small to mid-cap (SMID) space, long-term opportunities are predicated on management’s ability to guide companies through industry and market headwinds. Good stewards of shareholders’ capital will have an informed awareness of commercial and economic forces shaping business operations...
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