── ── Strategy

Industry Learning Sprint

A structured 3-step process (financial reports → expert dialogue → unique view) for building a working industry mental model in approximately one week. The sequence is strict: financials before experts, experts before view formation. Financial reports reveal how an industry actually works stripped of marketing narrative; gross margin, capex pattern, and disclosed risk factors encode economic reality.

How it works

Step 1 — Financial Structure Mapping (Day 1–2). Pull 3–5 years of annual reports for 2–3 leading companies. Do not read analyst commentary first. Extract: Revenue model · Gross margin (>60% = platform economics; <20% = commodity) · Capex vs. opex split (determines moat and entry barrier) · Customer concentration (>30% from one customer = disclosed systemic risk) · Disclosed risk factors (the most honest document a company publishes — read as a map of industry failure modes). Output: one-page financial structure map.

Step 2 — Expert Dialogue (Day 3–5). Conduct 3–5 conversations using the financial structure as your hypothesis base. Target four categories: operators, investors, ex-employees, regulators. Design each conversation as a hypothesis stress-test: "I noticed [X] in the financials — is that because [Y] or [Z]?" Ask: "What does the financial structure not capture?" Output: 3–5 corrections or confirmations + 2–3 structural insights the financials did not reveal.

Step 3 — Unique View Formation (Day 6–7). Synthesize into one non-consensus hypothesis: specific (name the mechanism), falsifiable (state what would prove it wrong), contested (a domain expert would disagree). Stop-rule: if you cannot state a contested view, you have summarized, not analyzed. Return to expert corrections: "What do experts believe that I saw evidence against in the financials?"

When to use it

• user is entering an unfamiliar industry and needs a working mental model fast
• user says 'I need to understand this sector before a meeting next week'
• user is evaluating an acquisition or investment in a domain they don't know
• user is preparing for a high-stakes expert conversation with limited time
• user needs to produce an investment thesis or market entry recommendation under time pressure

Worked example

Graham's Analysis of Northern Pipeline (1926)

Source: Graham, B. & Dodd, D., Security Analysis, McGraw-Hill, 1934. https://www.amazon.com/Security-Analysis-Foreword-Buffett-Editions/dp/0071592539; also documented in Lowe, J., Benjamin Graham on Value Investing, Dearborn Financial Publishing, 1994.