Horizons newsletter – week 30 // 2018
In our 100th edition of the Horizons we like to introduce the people that work behind the scenes to produce the newsletter that you receive in your inbox every two weeks. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy making it.
Horizons is a bi-monthly Dasym Research initiative to show you how the Dasym themes have been in the news. We publish the Horizons on our website and as an email newsletter. If you wish to receive the email, please contact Investor Relations.
Do you have a question about the digitization of consumer’s daily lives? As a research-driven investment company, we want to be relevant to you, so please provide us with your questions and remarks. Your feedback will help us to drive our research agenda.
Martijn van Veen focuses on expanding Dasym’s product range. He has been working at Dasym since December 2017 and brings the investor perspective into the Horizons. Before joining Dasym, I worked as trader and asset manager and founded several investment funds, so I know the ropes and have some knowledge about what keeps investors up at night. Still, Dasym cannot be compared with any other firm I have worked with. Each fortnight, the writers from the Research team and Thinktank surprise me with the variety of Horizon topics and the way these topics link back to our investment strategy. My role is mostly centered on ensuring that the selected topics and approach are relevant to our investors and our funds. In addition to contributing substantive input to the Horizons, this newsletter also provides me with the means to put Dasym even more on the map. It would be nice to exchange thoughts with you about how the topics covered in the Horizons relate to your business. Just give me a call or send me an email and we will arrange a meeting with some Dasym professionals. And, of course, we are always open to your suggestions for Horizon topics.
Laura van der Ham talks about translating trends into themes. Having worked at Dasym and its predecessors since 2009, Laura is well aware of how themes can evolve over the years. Our 6-person Research team works closely with the investment managers to monitor industry and theme developments, with each researcher specializing in a few themes. Over the years, we have created a unique selection of major news media and niche industry blogs. In addition, we critically read and summarize research reports from a variety of institutes. Our focus, however, is not so much on the major trends, but rather on smaller developments that indicate a break in traditional thinking. For instance, many reports describe how consumers increasingly use online streaming services, but most miss the fact that sports content can act as an indicator for the profound changes in consumer behavior that are about to hit the market. The Horizons gives us the opportunity to share such insights with our network. Even more important, the Horizons challenge us to think critically about our themes and how recent developments fit, or sometimes do not fit, with our views. As a result, the Horizons also feed our investment themes and help us to incorporate new trends and opportunities.
Haroon Sheikh leads Dasym’s Thinktank since 2014. However, he has been working with Dasym and its predecessors since 2007, when he was writing his PhD dissertation in philosophy. What I particularly like about our work is that it combines the dynamism of the financial sector with the depth of academia. The Thinktank consists of a team of young, multidisciplinary researchers with backgrounds in economics, philosophy, public administration, innovation science and man-machine interaction. Our research is centered on three drivers of change. The hegemonic cycle describes how new middle classes drive a global reallocation of income. Secondly, the innovation cycle deals with how technological revolutions effect consumer’s daily lives. The socio-cultural cycle finally, is about the formative experiences of generations and the impact of generational differences on values and consumption patterns. Based on this framework, we make our regular research products and part of this finds its way into the Horizons. Our research activities are much broader, however. For instance, we have written books on topics that are fundamental to Dasym’s philosophy, like Sjoerd Bakker’s From Luxury to Necessity on the innovation cycle, or my Embedding Technopolis on the hegemonic cycle. If you are interested in these books or learning more about the Thinktank approach, please let me know.
Haroon:
What I particularly like about our work is that it combines the dynamism of the financial sector with the depth of academia
