CafeMutual put together one of its trade mark shows, and it was a great performance. About 450+ IFAs and other participants turned up, and as usual Prem had been able to get the who’s who of the industry to come – Prashant, Ramdeo, Santosh Kamath, ..among the managers, and many other speakers.

I had 2 sessions – one on the ‘Future of the IFA Advisory business’ – this was of course very easy. I just had to get on stage and say “I have no clue about this”. I do think it is easy to say ‘I do not know’ instead of bluffing. I have met many regulators and have come out confused about the problem and the solution. I do agree that the regulator also must be baffled by the complex country that we live in. Every solution has a problem in India. I am happy that I am not working with the regulator.

Ramdeo Aggarwal, Prashant Jain, and Santosh Kamath have one thing in common. They have tremendous integrity and belief in their own processes. A common investor needs to understand that he has to have a PHILOSOPHY, a PROCESS, and an ability to keep out the noise. Ramdeo spoke about ‘portfolio returns’ instead of ‘individual stock returns’. This is true. Not all you shares can turn out like Asian Paints, Hdfc, Supreme Industries, Page Industries, or Hdfc bank. Some duds will creep into your portfolio. So weeding is also important. He said “Markets are Driven by Earnings” – and proved it with examples like Infosys. Good presentation telling people “control what is within your reach”. I keep saying the same thing: stop blaming China, Obama, Pakistan, ….Macro, oil…makes no sense. Control what you can control. The very handsome Aashish and Akhil of Motilal Oswal were also there, and I was meeting Akhil for the first time.

Raghav Iyengar of Icici Prudential Amc showcased 3 successful IFAs – Kartik Jhaveri whom everybody knows and Sachin Kharate whom nobody knew. This guy is some story!! Raghav did a great job – he let Sachin talk about his journey from a railway platform to becoming a successful IFA. I have no clue what is his AUM, and to me that did not matter. I got Goosebumps when I heard the story of rags to riches, and it is a really inspiring story. Sachin has promised to send me more details about his life, and hopefully I will do a post about him. Good choice of IFAs – whoever did it.

Srikanth Meenakshi made a flying visit – more like a bird swooping down to pick a fish. I blinked and he was gone. He chaired a session on Adopting Technology to grow business – I am convinced that CafeMutual can do a one day ‘Technology seminar’ with parallel sessions so that some of the tech providers etc can be showcased and hand holding session can show step by step how tech can really be used well. 40 minutes sessions just kindle the appetite, but I can understand the constraints of the organisers too 🙂

Nilesh Shah spoke about ‘Amul’isation of the IFA business, and I do think it will happen, but the time taken could be long. As usual Nilesh was good in his communication. He is now a past master at this – and I have been seeing him since his Franklin Templeton days. One more thing is, he looks the same.

Wooing Women Investors: I have no clue what skill that Suresh Sadagopan has in wooing women, but he was chosen in that panel. Even more intriguing is how did Prem Khatri find out about that skill. I need to ask Prem about which woman told him that.

Gaurav Mashruwala has now become the Personal Finance Philosopher. I guess it happens when you control your weight, tongue (eating, talking), ….and as usual came and left before you could say ‘Yogic Wealth’. I am yet to read it, but I will.

Prashant Jain and Santosh Kamath inspire confidence – and you are reminded that Class is Permanent. Brilliant of PJ to come and talk about performance EXACTLY when it requires guts to do so! I know of another famous fund manager who has similar views but he has not YET put all his money to work the way PJ has. I liked his conviction – and one can see the first part of his view being proved right. The FMCG stocks are not really flying that high now. Gillette did hit a new low, but PnG had good results. I do see the change in leadership happening in the market. We are seeing big, humongous projects being sanctioned – and this is bound to be a great kick off for the Infra business. Santosh was upfront about his portfolio and how he had to explain JINDAL in his portfolio! I like the conviction of both these famous fund managers.

Amit Trivedi spoke about ‘Winning Habits of Successful People’ – and as usual had prepared well. I had heard many of these – perhaps all of these -but Amit’s presentation skills enhanced it. I wish I could implement this, because he said ‘winning is a habit’. I think he forgot to mention ‘stop procrastination’. Now I am wondering when I will start. It could have been a forum to talk about RollerCoaster!!

I enjoyed the sessions, and met a lot of interesting people – many known and many more unknown.

Thanks Team CafeMutual, see you next year.