When we set out to design our company T-shirt, one of the slogans proposed was "Wall Street in Chennai". Though this did not eventually make it to the T-shirt, it captures the essence of what we do. We are a group of finance specialists interested in the capital markets and involved in performing country, sector and company research for our clients, the world's top investment banks and financial institutions.

Our clients are in the business of making or recommending investment decisions and we are in the business of helping them with "all" the activities involved in arriving at these decisions. This "all" is somewhat misleading, though: we cannot go out and meet the overseas companies we research (because we are in India, and they, abroad); and we cannot publish buy/sell recommendations under our name (because of regulatory constraints in the foreign markets). Apart from this, we do everything a typical Wall Street associate does.

Our work culminates in a research report that cogently captures an investment thesis and makes a concrete recommendation to an investor. We back our arguments with numbers, using our financial acumen and spreadsheet skills to create models to arrive at the value of companies and financial instruments. Obviously, a company is not merely about numbers. Some of the other questions we need to ask are: Is the company's business model sound? Does it have a strong growth strategy? Is the management doing a good job? Are there disruptive changes taking place in the industry? (Merely asking the questions will not do, we need to find answers, too!)

Our associates primarily work out of our delivery office, though they are often required to spend time every year at New York or London, working alongside client teams. On many occasions, they are invited, as part of client teams, for investor conferences, off-sites and road shows.