Bertie the Biker vs. Bertie the Analyst

Auto analysts may focus on TCO, but it never really concerned Bertie, the user

In his first job as a buy-side analyst, Bertie was assigned coverage of the automobile sector. This decision was based on the fact that for all his adult life Bertie had ridden some two-wheeler: Bajaj Sunny to start with, then Chetak and finally, Yamaha RX 100. Extending the same logic, another analyst was allotted consumer staples companies because he used to eat chips all day.

An enthusiastic Bertie though took this allocation logic seriously and was looking forward to bringing his user experience to bear on the equity analysis of two-wheeler companies. This dual vantage left him confused though.

Research reports used to tell him that engine displacement of a two-wheeler, which was measured in cubic centimetres (cc) was a critical feature to analyse. In fact, all industry data was segmented based on this cc measure and conventional wisdom was that the consumer aspired to higher cc bikes and companies who had a bigger share of such bikes stood to gain. As a biker, Bertie had never cared about the cc of the vehicles he had ridden—in fact he did not know the exact cc of any of his bikes.

The only thing he cared for and loved was the fact that when the traffic light turned green, his RX 100 would by far be the fastest out of the gates, with its distinctive thump amidst a F-16 like trail of smoke.