Content is King

VCs usually turn their noses on content plays - not scalable, too people dependent. If you listen to MSM, you think the business is dead. If you see the industry analyst community, the metrics are disappointing the last several years.

So against this backdrop, it is delightful to see Corporate Executive Board's performance as an IT and other business process benchmarking/best practices/content firm.

(Click on graphic to expand data from Reuters.)

Market cap 2.5 times Gartner's (even with recent Gartner run-up) - which offers similar, though IT centric content and services.

Price/Earnings > 2.5X that of Microsoft and Oracle.

Gross Margins almost 20 basis points higher than well run offshore firms like Cognizant or Infosys.

What is impressive is even without the brand of Gartner it spends 15% of revenue basis points lower in sales and marketing.

Good to see at least some firms where Cotton Content is King.