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I finally read the GP letter. Lots of trees, not much forest. I could not understand how the head honcho did not address the effects of COVID-19 on the travel his analysts purportedly do in order to visit companies around the globe. He said their IT department stepped up; that suggests everyone hunkered down like the rest of us. I’d like to know more.
Many business including ours have gone virtual in our meetings in order to minimize the health hazards while running the business. Besides US is restricted to travel to many country since US has the highest infection cases in the world! I think Grandeur Peaks is doing something similar. Although it is nowhere as effective being on the ground seeing and hearing what is happening with oversea business, but there are few viable choices. With the arrival of multiple vaccines with efficiency >70%, they will help to bring back our normal lives in the near future.
Beefing up the IT support at home is not as hard as one think. Our college kids have to do remote learning since March until testing was available on campus. We moved up our data plan on broadband connection to our home; hardwired connection to multiple modems throughout the house with added wifi extenders. We all learned new virtual meeting softwares for schools and business. Our cellular plan already have unlimited data plan so it can be use as hotspot when broadband connect goes down. Overall we survived in 2020 and looking forward for the vaccines for our family.
From third qter report it seem you're right @BenWP.
Business Update Five months into our work-from-home approach, we were optimistic that cautiously returning the team back to our office in Salt Lake City was possible. However, shortly after Labor Day, the COVID-19 cases began to rise in the local community and so we have postponed our transition. Instead, team members may coordinate with their respective officemates and utilize our offices by request. We remain committed to doing our part to reduce the potential impact of the pandemic on our communities, as we are fortunate to be able to be equally effective working from our home offices
That's helpful, @Derf. One of the reasons I have moved away from GP's funds (Micro and Contrarian) is the number of companies the individual funds hold, to say nothing of the volatility. As many of the firms are very small, it seems to me that the analysts need to be in country to assess what's going on, both on micro and macro levels. My preferred international small cap fund, BCSVX, is fairly concentrated and has low turnover.
Comments
"Here is a link to Robert Gardiner’s Chairman Letter reflecting on 2020."
Robert Gardiner's letter was written on January 4, 2021 with the first sentence:
"Amidst the many challenges of 2020, Salt Lake City was hit with a hurricane-strength windstorm on September 8th..."
How could it be about 2021 when today is January 8, 2021?
Beefing up the IT support at home is not as hard as one think. Our college kids have to do remote learning since March until testing was available on campus. We moved up our data plan on broadband connection to our home; hardwired connection to multiple modems throughout the house with added wifi extenders. We all learned new virtual meeting softwares for schools and business. Our cellular plan already have unlimited data plan so it can be use as hotspot when broadband connect goes down. Overall we survived in 2020 and looking forward for the vaccines for our family.
Business Update Five months into our work-from-home approach, we were optimistic that cautiously returning the team back to our office in Salt Lake City was possible. However, shortly after Labor Day, the COVID-19 cases began to rise in the local community and so we have postponed our transition. Instead, team members may coordinate with their respective officemates and utilize our offices by request. We remain committed to doing our part to reduce the potential impact of the pandemic on our communities, as we are fortunate to be able to be equally effective working from our home offices