Recruitment & HR

How to Do Financial Due Diligence Before Selecting Stocks? Stock picking isn’t just about looking at charts and following trends—it’s about understanding the financial health of a company. Before investing, a structured Financial Due Diligence (FDD) process can help you avoid bad bets and spot strong opportunities. Here’s a framework to follow: 1. Understand the Business Model & Industry - What does the company do? - Who are its competitors? - Is it in a growing or declining industry? 2. Analyze the Financial Statements - Income Statement (Profit & Loss) – Revenue growth, profitability (Gross, Operating, Net Margins), EPS trends - Balance Sheet – Debt levels, cash reserves, working capital position - Cash Flow Statement – Operating cash flow vs. net income, free cash flow trends 3. Check Key Financial Ratios - Profitability: ROE, ROA, Gross & Operating Margins - Liquidity: Current Ratio, Quick Ratio - Leverage: Debt-to-Equity, Interest Coverage - Valuation: P/E Ratio, P/B Ratio, EV/EBITDA 4. Assess Management & Governance - Background & track record of leadership - Insider buying/selling trends - Transparency in disclosures & corporate governance 5. Review Competitive Position & Moat - Does the company have a sustainable competitive advantage (brand, network effect, patents, cost advantage)? 6. Industry Trends & Macroeconomic Factors - Economic cycles, inflation, interest rates - Global supply chain, geopolitical risks - Market trends affecting revenue streams 7. Cross-Check with Analyst Reports & News - Read Equity Research Reports, Investor Presentations, Credit Reports - Stay updated on company news, regulatory changes 8. Look at Historical Performance & Future Guidance - Compare past financials vs. projections - Evaluate management’s growth expectations 9. Risk Assessment & Downside Protection - What’s the worst-case scenario? - How resilient is the business in a downturn? 10. Compare with Peers & Make an Informed Decision No company operates in isolation—compare financials and valuations with competitors before buying. Smart investing is about discipline, not hype. By doing thorough due diligence, you increase your chances of picking winners while avoiding pitfalls. What’s your go-to method for analyzing stocks? Let’s discuss.

After spending three decades in the aerospace industry, I’ve seen firsthand how crucial it is for different sectors to learn from each other. We no longer can afford to stay stuck in our own bubbles. Take the aerospace industry, for example. They’ve been looking at how car manufacturers automate their factories to improve their own processes. And those racing teams? Their ability to prototype quickly and develop at a breakneck pace is something we can all learn from to speed up our product development. It’s all about breaking down those silos and embracing new ideas from wherever we can find them. When I was leading the Scorpion Jet program, our rapid development – less than two years to develop a new aircraft – caught the attention of a company known for razors and electric shavers. They reached out to us, intrigued by our ability to iterate so quickly, telling me "you developed a new jet faster than we can develop new razors..." They wanted to learn how we managed to streamline our processes. It was quite an unexpected and fascinating experience that underscored the value of looking beyond one’s own industry can lead to significant improvements and efficiencies, even in fields as seemingly unrelated as aerospace and consumer electronics. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s more important than ever for industries to break out of their silos and look to other sectors for fresh ideas and processes. This kind of cross-industry learning not only fosters innovation but also helps stay competitive in a rapidly changing market. For instance, the aerospace industry has been taking cues from car manufacturers to improve factory automation. And the automotive companies are adopting aerospace processes for systems engineering. Meanwhile, both sectors are picking up tips from tech giants like Apple and Google to boost their electronics and software development. And at Siemens, we partner with racing teams. Why? Because their knack for rapid prototyping and fast-paced development is something we can all learn from to speed up our product development cycles. This cross-pollination of ideas is crucial as industries evolve and integrate more advanced technologies. By exploring best practices from other industries, companies can find innovative new ways to improve their processes and products. After all, how can someone think outside the box, if they are only looking in the box? If you are interested in learning more, I suggest checking out this article by my colleagues Todd Tuthill and Nand Kochhar where they take a closer look at how cross-industry learning are key to developing advanced air mobility solutions. https://lnkd.in/dK3U6pJf

Louder for the people at the back 🎤 Many organisations today seem to have shifted from being institutions that develop great talent to those that primarily seek ready-made talent. This trend overlooks the immense value of individuals who, despite lacking experience, possess a great attitude, commitment, and a team-oriented mindset. These qualities often outweigh the drawbacks of hiring experienced individuals with a fixed and toxic mindset. The best organisations attract talent with their best years ahead of them, focusing on potential rather than past achievements. Let’s be clear this is more about mindset and willingness to learn and unlearn as apposed to age. To realise the incredible potential return, organisations must commit to creating an environment where continuous development is possible. This requires a multi-faceted approach: 1. Robust Training Programmes: Employers should invest in comprehensive training programmes that equip employees with the necessary skills for their roles. This includes on-the-job training, mentorship programmes, online courses, and workshops. 2. Redefining Hiring Criteria: Organisations should revise their hiring criteria to focus more on candidates’ potential and willingness to learn rather than solely on prior experience or formal qualifications. Behavioural interviews, aptitude tests, and probationary periods can help assess a candidate's ability to learn and adapt. 3. Partnerships with Educational Institutions: Companies can collaborate with educational institutions to design curricula that align with industry needs. Apprenticeship programmes, internships, and cooperative education can bridge the gap between academic learning and practical job skills. 4. Lifelong Learning Culture: Encouraging a culture of lifelong learning within organisations is crucial. Employers should provide ongoing education opportunities and support for professional development. This includes continuous skills assessment and access to resources for upskilling and reskilling. 5. Inclusive Recruitment Practices: Employers should implement inclusive recruitment practices that remove biases and barriers. Blind recruitment, diversity quotas, and targeted outreach programmes can help ensure that diverse candidates are given a fair chance. By implementing these measures, organisations can develop a workforce that is adaptable, innovative, and resilient, ensuring sustainable success and growth.

Huge news for anyone working in tech in the US: noncompetes will be banned: not just in California (like before), but nationwide. This is very, very relevant for anyone at Amazon (which is the Big Tech that has enforced noncompetes even for low-level engineering positions). But it's just as relevant at other companies that (outside California) added noncompetes to contracts. Other countries should take notice. The FTC has correctly determined that noncompetes is bad for the economy: although undeniably good for businesses that want to keep wages lower, and enforce lower attrition. If you read the ruling closer: there is an exception where noncompetes can remain for executives. The regulation defines as an executive as those making more than $151K/year AND being policy makers. Many senior-and-above individual contributors will make more than this (especially in Big Tech). But they are not policymakers/execs! That's usually Director-and-above. The regulation is expected to be in effect in a bit over 4 months' time. During this time, organizations can sue the FTC to get this reversed: and the US National Chamber of Commerce has immediately announced they will do just this. Still, there's now a very real chance that soon, noncompetes will be a thing of the past for almost all US workers. We've seen what happened in states that did this earlier: California is the hotbed of innovation and startups. It also has a ban on noncompetes. Coincidence? The FTC doesn't seem to think so. Other countries (that still have noncompetes allowed) could well take notice. The FTC ruling source: https://lnkd.in/dFeVcXwr

Why rely solely on surveys when you can uncover the true state of DEI through concrete metrics? This is a question that echoes in my mind each time I embark on a new journey with a client. Surveys can provide valuable opinions, but they often fall short of capturing real facts and the nuanced realities of individuals within an organization. 🔎 Here are 6 key DEI metrics that truly matter: 📍 Attrition Rates: Take a closer look at why employees are leaving, especially among different groups. This will help you understand if there are specific challenges or issues that need to be addressed to improve retention. 📍 Leadership Pipeline Diversity: Evaluate the diversity within your leadership team. Are there opportunities for underrepresented individuals to rise into leadership roles? Are they equally represented on all levels of leadership? 📍 Promotion and Advancement Rates: Assess if all employees, regardless of background, are getting equal opportunities to advance in their careers. By monitoring promotion and advancement rates, you can identify any biases and work towards creating a level playing field. 📍 Pay Equity: Ensure that everyone is paid fairly and equally for their work. Address any discrepancies in pay based on not only gender, but also race, age, ethnicity or other intersectional factors. 📍 Hiring Pipeline Diversity: Examine the diversity of candidates in your hiring process. Are you attracting a wide range of talent from different backgrounds? Tracking this metric helps you gauge the effectiveness of your recruitment efforts in creating a diverse workforce. 📍 Employee Engagement by Demographic: Measure the level of engagement and satisfaction among employees from various groups. Are there any disparities in engagement levels? Run the crossings of identity diversity and organizational one. By focusing on these 6 concrete metrics, you can gain real insights into your organization's DEI progress based on actionable data that drives progress. ________________________________________ Are you looking for more HR tips and DEI content like this?  📨 Join my free DEI Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dtgdB6XX

ESOPs don’t always work, but when they do its magical 5000 Swiggy employees made around 9000 crores in the IPO Some would have made 100 cr plus Many many more would have made 10 cr plus Life changing money for most people and will enable risk taking and another 100 plus startups from this set If you are evaluating offers from startups with significant ESOP component, this is how you should evaluate it For an employee to make meaningful money through ESOPs, 2 things must happen: - Growth in company value - Employee friendly ESOP policies that ensures employees make money when company grows a) Growth in Company Value This is where employees need to think like investors Just like investors are particularly wary of what valuation they are coming in, entry valuations should matter for employees too ESOPs are allotted basis the current valuation The likelihood of a 10x growth in your ESOPs if you are joining a startup valued at 100 million $ is much higher compared to joining a startup already valued at 5 billion $ A 75 lakh ESOP allotment in a 1000 cr valued org with chances of a 10x growth could be a better offer than 2 cr ESOP allotment at a 20000 cr valued org with lower chances of future growth The second thing to judge is the business model and the likelihood of the business to grow( very important for Seed/Series A/B startups) b) ESOP Policies The startup ecosystem is full of stories where employees didn’t make money despite the company growing and having multiple liquidity events. Swiggy, Zomato are examples of great ESOP policy. Many companies have extremely shitty ones Here are the things that should matter most while evaluating policies: 1. Vesting Schedule: The standard is 25% vesting after every year. Any schedule which has higher vesting towards the later years is a red flag Vesting should never be performance linked If performance is bad, it is management’s responsibility to fire 2. Vesting on Leaving/Startups Exit: If you exit, you should retain all options that has vested If a startup gets acquired before all your options vest, there should be accelerated vesting 3. ESOP Communication: There should always be written communication( preferably through ESOP portal) Verbal communication for ESOPs is a huge red flag 4. Strike Price: Strike Price should be as low as possible( Re 1 ideally). This maximizes the value creation for the employee 5. Holding/Exercise Period: Converting options to shares is a major tax liability exercise. With limited exercise period, it becomes impossible for employees to exercise as it means paying up to 40% real taxes on notional capital gains in an asset class that is not liquid Ideally, holding period should be infinite for vested options, even after exit This enables employees to wait for liquidity events without incurring upfront taxation to be paid out of own pocket

💡 THE GOLDEN QUESTION: We work daily, so why are we still paid monthly? After 25 years across Europe, Asia, and North America, I’ve seen one constant: People show up, put in effort every single day — yet see the reward only once a month. It made sense in the 1950s when payrolls were done by hand. It makes none in 2025. In my opinion, that delay says a lot about work today. We’ve automated everything — hiring, taxes, even AI workflows — but not pay. That’s not innovation. That’s inertia. That’s why Deel’s latest move genuinely struck me. After four years in stealth, Deel — now valued at $17.3B after a $300M raise — launched Anytime Pay. A system that lets employees cash their earned wages instantly. Worked five days? Earned $500? Move it to your account today. No waiting. No loans. No late fees. No stress. And the impact could be massive. Over 500M people live paycheck to paycheck — 78% of employees say they’d struggle if their paycheck was delayed by just one week. Many pay $75+ in late fees or take payday loans at 40%+ interest just to get by. That’s a $1 trillion industry built on financial anxiety — not innovation. The reason it’s never been fixed? Paying mid-month isn’t easy. Each payout requires precise, localized tax calculations — varying by country, benefits, job type, even gender. Most firms still rely on local providers who process this manually — a 10-day bottleneck. Deel rebuilt the entire payroll infrastructure across 160 countries. →Gross-to-net happens instantly. →Taxes compute in seconds. →Workers finally get to breathe. That’s not payroll innovation. That’s infrastructure-level change. For a company already doing $1B+ ARR and serving 1.5M employees, this move isn’t just strategic — it’s transformative. To me, this isn’t fintech. It’s freedom tech. Because innovation isn’t real until it makes life fairer — not just faster. So I’ll ask you — if you could be paid the moment you earned it, would you ever go back? #DeelPartner #Leadership #Innovation #FutureOfWork #Fintech #Deel #AnytimePay #FreedomTech

🌑 Aria spent 8 months building the strategy. Daniel spent ten minutes repeating it, and walked out with the credit, the mandate, and the promotion. Wed. 10 am, 14 executives sat around a polished oak table at ABC Inc. for a High-stakes quarterly review. 👩💻 Aria, Director of Strategy, had been up since 3 a.m., rehearsing her pitch for the firm’s new client retention model. 8 months of research, and the weight of knowing this idea could define her career. She presented it flawlessly: “By shifting from acquisition to lifetime value, we can double retention and cut churn by 18% in the next two quarters.” Silence. Nods. Paper shuffling. The CEO glanced at his phone. The agenda moved on. 🧑💼 10 min. later, Daniel, VP of Sales, leaned back in his chair. “So what if we pivoted to focus on lifetime value instead of acquisition?” He said. The room lit up. “Brilliant!” “Exactly what we need!” “Daniel, can you lead a task force on this?” Aria sat frozen. Heart pounding. Words caught in her throat. Did no one realize? Did no one care? By 12:12pm, Daniel was walking out with a new mandate, and Aria was walking back to her desk, wondering if she’d imagined the entire thing. .... ❌ Women’s contributions are routinely undervalued in meetings. Studies show men are interrupted 33% less, their ideas are credited faster, and they’re more likely to be perceived as “thought leaders” for the same points women already made. As a result: • The women doing the work aren’t the ones remembered for it. • The men remembered for it aren’t the ones who built it. • And why companies keep losing the very women who could transform them.    💡Here’s 3 ways to make sure your ideas stick to your name and no one else’s. 𝟭. 𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 • Send a pre-read to key stakeholders: “Looking forward to sharing my proposal on shifting retention strategy to lifetime value metrics in today’s review.” • It creates a paper trail and primes the room to connect the idea to you before anyone else repeats it.    𝟮. 𝗖𝗼-𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 • If someone repeats your idea, bridge back to yourself w/o confrontation: “Yes, building on what I shared earlier about lifetime value…” • Subtle, but it reframes the narrative: you introduced it, they added color.    𝟯. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀 • Brief allies in advance and agree to amplify each other’s points: “As Aria mentioned earlier, her retention model could cut churn by 18%.” • This doubles down your voice so it’s impossible to steal 👇 If you want to stop being the ghostwriter of other people’s success stories and start being recognized as the architect of your own, join the waitlist of our next cohort of ⭐ From Hidden Talent to Visible Leaders ⭐ https://lnkd.in/gx7CpGGR 👊 Because being the smartest person in the room means nothing if nobody remembers you said it first.

77 companies. 8 sectors. The first market map for a business model that didn't have a name three years ago.   Today we're releasing Emergence Capital's AI-Native Services market map.   Three years ago, we started noticing something weird. The best AI companies we were meeting weren't building software. They were doing the work themselves, using AI to deliver services faster, cheaper, and better than legacy providers.   We started calling it AI-native services. We wrote about it, got a cease and desist from Deloitte for our trouble, and kept going because the pattern was too strong to ignore.   Since then, the model has shown up in insurance brokerage, tech consulting, fund admin, law, healthcare, claims processing. Different industries, same playbook.   The customer buys a result. The vendor owns the outcome. The AI model underneath is an input, not the product. That's what makes these companies so hard for OpenAI or Anthropic to disrupt. They don't sell the model. They sell the work getting done.   This map is our first attempt to document the landscape. 77 companies across 8 sectors that are running some version of this playbook today.   We've always focused on emerging business models that come from fundamental tech shifts. SaaS was the last one. AINS will be bigger.   If you're building in this space and we missed you, drop a comment.   This map is the "who." On Monday, we're releasing the "how."

You're in a job interview, you get the offer—but the salary? Way lower than expected. The worst move? Accepting on the spot. The second worst? Declining outright. Here's how you can take the 'ick' out of negotiating: 1. Start with Gratitude →“Thank you for the offer.” 2. Share Excitement →“I’m really excited about the role and joining the company.” 3. Address the Salary →“Before I accept, I’d like to discuss the salary. It’s below what I believe reflects the market value for my experience.” 4. Reinforce Your Value →“I’m confident my expertise in A and B, and my contributions to C and D will drive success here.” 5. Reiterate Market Value →“Based on my research and track record, I believe a salary range of X to Y would be more in line with the industry.” Where to do research? Check salary data on sites like Glassdoor, Payscale, and LinkedIn, or ask industry peers and recruiters for real-world insights. Pro tip: Use multiple sources to get a well-rounded view and always adjust for location and years of experience. P.S. Have you ever accepted a salary because you didn't know how to negotiation? I'll go first: Yes, I have...