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Rebuilding the Right Way in the NBA

In the NBA, impressive feats don’t only happen on the basketball court. As exciting action happen on the court, many remarkable things that decide the success of the team takes place outside of it. There are front offices that are building stuff of legends. The Spurs front office and coaching staff that has been working together for almost two decades now is one of the organizations that are getting lots of accolades for their impressive work.

However, the Spurs organization aren’t the only team worthy of praises. Another front office that has done a wonderful job is the Oklahoma City Thunder front office. The team provides a very good blueprint on how to build a team from scratch, from one of the worst to one of the best. In a league where plenty of teams are stuck in the bottom of the barrel without having shown any signs of improvement for years and years, they are a living example of rebuilding the right way in the NBA.

So how are they doing it?

An Organization with a Plan

The very first thing that every project needs is a plan. The plan for the Thunder was to build through drafts and that was what they did. This meant that they had to go through losing seasons. It was definitely not easy but it worked as the team acquired some topnotch talent along the way.

Even when they already had talented players such as Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, they didn’t rush things. They didn’t suddenly go all in by trading for or signing an expensive player. They kept on slowly adding valuable players and trade assets to the team. This provided players with star-potential to develop into stars. The players that fit well along the stars stayed and those that didn’t got traded. It was a continuous process that built the team that they are right now.

Creating a Culture

Aside from creating and following on a plan, another key thing that is common to all successful teams right now is having a good culture within the team. A good culture is something that encourages every player on the team to be his best. It is no surprise that teams known for their camaraderie such as Miami Heat, Thunder, Spurs and the Indiana Pacers are also the top teams right now. To further prove the point, the talented yet dysfunctional Lakers team struggled the entire last season.

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ASHOK LEYLAND “IN HIGH GEAR”

Ashok Leyland is a part of the multi-billion dollar Hinduja Group. The group is engaged in Investment Banking, International Trading and Global Investments. The company manufactures commercial vehicles and ranks 2nd in India; they also manufacture buses and are the 4th largest in the world. In manufacturing trucks they are the 16th largest in the world. They have footprints in over 50 countries and headquartered in Chennai. They have Joint Venture with Nissan Motor Company (Japan) for Light Commercial Vehicles, John Deere (USA) for Construction Equipment, Continental AG (Germany) for Automotive Infotronics and the Alteams Group for the manufacture of high-press die-casting extruded aluminum components for the automotive and telecommunications sectors. They have 8 plants across the globe.

PRODUCTS

Buses – Helping nearly 70 million people reach their destinations

Trucks – Variety of truck for all needs

Light Vehicles – “DOST” the company’s class –leading LCV with a payload of 1.5 ton.

Defense – Pioneers in design, development and manufacture of specialized Defense Vehicles for armed forces.

Power Solutions – LEYPOWER range of engines that power generator sets, marine applications, earth moving equipments, compressors, cranesamd harvesters.

RESULT ANALYSIS

Top line increased to 5955 crores from 4505 crores in Q4FY15 growth of 32%
Operating Profit stood at 635 crores as against 347 crores in Q4FY15 thereby growing 83%
PAT stood at 456 crores vs. 238 crores growing 66%, growing 92% (before exceptional items)

AL expects MHCV industry to grow at 15-20% YoY in FY17. The company hopes to improve market share in ICVs through new launches and positive on industry growth prospects, but are mindful of rising competition in higher tonnage segments with new launches by incumbents.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE QUARTER

Aiming to grow share in ICVs: AL’s domestic MHCV market rose by 440bps YoY to 32.7% in FY16 led by gains in higher tonnage segments and in North/East regions. AL plans to enhance market share in the ICV segment (7 to 16MT segments) with new launches including Sunshine and Guru in bus and truck segments respectively.
Impairments in subs/JVs: AL management decided to provide for impairment towards equity investments in Optare, Albonair and its LCV JVs with Nissan. AL reckons that bulk of the cleaning up of its non-core investments has been done.
Modest capex guidance: AL’s capex + investments in FY16 have been ~Rs 2bn. The company has guided for capex + investments of Rs 5bn in FY17. Part of this would be used for building facilities for fully built buses and cabins.
Near-term outlook: We expect b earnings growth momentum to continue in 1QFY17 with healthy volume growth and YoY margin expansion

We recommend a Buy on Ashok Leyland at its CMP of 105 with a target of 115 for a short term outlook.

ASHOK LEYLAND Share Price closed at Rs.105.00 today.

ASHOK LEYLAND is one of the Top 500 Shares identified by Dynamic Research team at the end of every quarter out of 1700 Shares of NSE.

For more Support and Resistance Levels of ASHOK LEYLAND, Please visit ASHOK LEYLAND Share Price Forecast.

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Top Five Things That Allure Vacationers to Travel Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands

Each and every adventure & bird lovers want to explore the Ecuador & Galapagos Islands once in their life time. Ecuador is all-encompassing of the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific, which’s about 10000 west of the mainland. Ecuador is an extremely bio diverse province consisting of 1,600 bird variety in the continental region along with thirty-eight more widespread in the Galapagos Islands. These islands are well-known for cruise ships, trekking tours and scuba diving as well.

Let’s have a look at top five causes that force travellers to tour the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador in their next holiday:

Bird watching: Ecuador is very well-known for a large selection of bird species. Hiring qualified guides who’re well acquainted with various languages can make holiday makers’ trip fascinating by including most numbers of birds in their trip.

Scuba diving: Fun of discovering the rate marine creatures under the water in will add sheer adventure to your trip. Holiday makers can take help from a skilled scuba driver & can go crazy under water.

Andes mountain range: Also, Ecuador is renowned for its share of the Andes Mountain range. Travelers can get prepared to enjoy camping, rafting and hiking challenges on this mountain range.

Amazon Rain Forest:

Amazon Rainforest is certainly one of the best reasons to travel Ecuador. Offering eco-friendly experience to the travellers, Amazon Rainforest tours offer hiking, bird watching and fishing experiences to be cheered forever. There’re several eco-friendly lodges that offer a whole diverse experience to the holiday makers.

Deluxe Yachts:

Common birds of the Galapagos Islands are a real treat to the eyes. Travelers won’t like to miss the delight of capturing some rare species discovered in the Galapagos Islands. Tourists can hire deluxe yachts to tour this group of islets for an experience of life-time.

No doubt, Ecuador is an ideal destination for big groups and family who can travel around together the exquisiteness of the planet where we breathe. Tourists can merge the delight of Ecuador & Galapagos adventure into 1 single trip.

Many tour operators in Ecuador are providing custom-made tours to the holiday makers as per their preference and budget. If you want to discover this part of the world appropriately, you must spend some precious time in finding a reliable tour operator in this region. There are also tour operators that are offering “Galapagos Last Minutes Deals” that always saves you a bit money.

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