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8 October 2025
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Founder-led companies often attract investors due to leaders' personal stakes and long-term vision. But founder presence alone does not guarantee success, and the challenge is to identify which ones will succeed in the long term.
People love new things, and investors are no different. But there's something to be said for older businesses that have a proven formula for success, and here are nine ASX-listed stocks that fit the bill.
Jack Gance is one of Australia's most successful entrepreneurs having built two market leaders from scratch. Here is the story of how he founded Chemist Warehouse and expanded it into today's retailing behemoth.
Jack Gance is a rare entrepreneur who’s created two market-leading businesses from scratch. He reveals how he started with limited capital, how he scaled up with innovative marketing and the lessons learned.
Following an overseas trip to see facilities and meet management and competitors, a fund manager has strengthened her conviction on three key stocks. Some companies can prosper in an economic slowdown.
Over decades, relatively few companies generate all the stockmarket's outperformance. Is this an argument for passive investing or does it prove active investing is rewarded? Bessembinder lets you decide.
The ability to adapt to change makes a company more likely to sustain today’s profitability. There are five value chains plus a focus on cashflow and asset growth that the 'transition winners' are adopting.
There are 75 brands owned by LVMH which operate as largely independent businesses, keeping them agile and entrepreneurial. The company’s response to the Covid pandemic was a great validation of this strength.
Focus on what you're good at. If you have no insights on macro themes or market trends but can spot a great company, that should be your emphasis, while carefully watching entry and exit prices.
Fortescue, Crown, TPG Telecom, 7 Group, Flight Centre and Wisetech are the Australian companies among the family/founder businesses showing resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic versus non-family peers.
The attributes of great growth companies are not all contained within the numbers that look at the recent past. Investors need to analyse the industry growth trajectory, the barriers to entry, and the corporate culture.
There's a lot more to identifying great small companies than the financials, and it pays to lift the lid on the underlying characteristics of the best businesses, including the people who run them.
This AI cycle feels less like a revolution and more like a rerun. Just like fibre in 2000, shale in 2014, and cannabis in 2019, the technology or product is real but the capital cycle will be brutal. Investors beware.
An explosion in low-skilled migration to Australia has depressed wages, killed productivity, and cut rental vacancy rates to near decades-lows. It’s time both sides of politics addressed the issue.
LICs are continuing to struggle with large discounts and frustrated investors are wondering whether it’s worth holding onto them. This explains why the next 6-12 months will be make or break for many LICs.
Australian housing’s 50-year boom was driven by falling rates and rising borrowing power — not rent or yield. With those drivers exhausted, future returns must reconcile with economic fundamentals. Are we ready?
Younger Australians think they’ll need $100k a year in retirement - nearly double what current retirees spend. Expectations are rising fast, but are they realistic or just another case of lifestyle inflation?
This week, I got the news that my mother has dementia. It came shortly after my father received the same diagnosis. This is a meditation on getting old and my regrets in not getting my parents’ affairs in order sooner.