What I read this week...
Week 103
STRATEGY & MANAGEMENT
Tech giants in the Gulf are building super-apps to dominate digital life (Restofworld)
Why Apple Can’t Leave China (yet) (PolyMatter)
New Unilever CEO to Hire ‘20 Times More Influencers’ in Marketing Boost (PRweek)
Leaning Into the Turbulence: Private Equity Midyear Report 2025 (Bain)
Wing and Walmart are bringing drone delivery to 100 new stores (The Verge)
INDIA
Why Ola & Uber Have NEVER Been Profitable & The Rise of BluSmart, Rapido and Others (Venture Labs Inc.)
What they don’t teach you about M&As in B-school (The Ken)
“Much of it is a matter of changing corporate and business culture—a collective realisation that competitiveness isn’t just about speedy deals and rapid scaling. That dealmaking needs to be preceded by strategy, not vice versa. That post-merger integration matters as much as pre-deal valuation…” - link back to what we discussed in class
Data Centers in India (Nikhil Kamath)
Strategic Musings
“You might think 'building a company that's trading bonds, what's so aesthetic about that?' What's aesthetic about it is doing it right. Getting the right kind of people, approaching the problem, and doing it right it's a beautiful thing to do something right.” — Jim Simons
Caught my eye…
