Ecolab CEO, Q1 2026:
"Our bio processing business, which is the core of our business, well, it grew north of 100% in the first quarter."
And on capacity: "We packed, for now, we need more capacity as well."
$DHR
great to hear - would love to see Howdens crack the US!
A quick thank you to @_inpractise for working with me to source a very niche call on this project. I've worked with them for years and they are fantastic at sourcing expert calls and working with your schedule.
Weekly Update: October 8
48 expert interviews. Featured:
TransDigm: Airbus capped post-Covid price rises at 12%
Meta vs Amazon: board oversight and cost culture
AppLovin: CloudX and publisher lock-in on MAX
Former AppLovin account manager on CloudX and the cost of leaving MAX. $APP
Former AppLovin account manager on cashback deals tying 90-95% of ad revenue to MAX. $APP
Former Head of Product at Hippo on the renters-to-home cross-sell at $LMND
Yep - it’s always surprises us also how some firms only do meetings with current management and take it at face value without seeking disconfirming evidence from the field…
Management meetings/field research is more important than ever. Assume 75% of the work you do at your desk for 8-12 hours a day will be done better by agents running 24/7. Being on the road more should be part of the job description for analysts.
Model build tests as a screen to hire analysts will eventually go away and perhaps be replaced with mock management interviews or mock information synthesis.
Being a nob in shared meetings, sabotaging yourself and those you share with will become fatal.
Every possible input into the numbers inside one of the three financial statements – product, sales, distribution, input costs, discretionary opex, balance sheet utilization, capital allocation, etc , etc, etc . . . . seemingly always fall into one of two buckets.
1.) Things within management’s control.
and
2.) Things outside their control.
When given the opportunity to meet with company executives, it’s almost always more productive, when faced with limited time, to ask specifically about things they control. There are certain questions only management can answer. Ask those questions first. Too much time in management meetings is spent asking execs to speculate on short term things outside of their control.
Manager, Global Quality at Eastman Performance Films on the $XPEL factory timeline
Former Marketing Director at a CPG e-commerce brand on AI tools beating the $KVYO agent
Former President of CPI Electron Devices at TransDigm on Siemens holding off on price ($TDG)
Former VP of Supply Chain Strategy at GE on why Airbus won't reach rate 75 ($AIR)
Former Executive Director at Wells Fargo on non-bank lenders picking the easier score ($FICO)
Former VP of Marketing at Huuuge on the Traffic Puzzle handover at $HUG
Former Marketing Director at a CPG e-commerce brand on the $KVYO CDP bet that did not pay off
Former Director of Materials at Pratt & Whitney on the GTF disk shortfall at $RTX
Former Sales Executive at Coupang on limited room for more marketplace ads ($CPNG)














