Poet, Basic Principles and Corporate Finance

A friend had requested me to start adding some life to my blog. Thanks Ramki.
I have to start from this picture here. Its been a childhood memory still etched in mind. The ride from sea shore to this place on picture is hardly 5 minutes but it was my first adventure. For the first time I sensed the beauty of nature here. The statue on the right is of an ancient tamil poet. His words of wisdom written 2000 years ago still holds good. A great thinker and philosopher. Like Zen and the Art of War, Machiavelian Management tactics, Thiruvalluvar's couplets offer unique perspectives on Management, Leadership and Ethics.

An example:-
Easy to every man the speech that shows the way;
Hard thing to shape one's life by words they say!

Its easy to say something but very difficult to act according to what has been said. If you are a great leader then you should talk the talk and walk the walk. Any thought without action is useless.

As Humans we get lost in details. We go such an extent that we even forget our basic principles. Above statement is a very fine basic principle. But too many times we dont follow what we say.

A thumb rule of corporate finance states that for any investment to be profitable it should cross a minimum acceptable hurdle rate. That means the returns from the project should be more than a minimum acceptable rate. Too many times many individuals and corporates forget this principle and investments turn red.

There is no obvious connection between the Philosopher mentioned above and corporate finance. But there are few simple Universal Rules which will help us see the forest through the trees.

adios.