The fifteen points

Before Priya's family buys a second-hand cycle, her father does not just look at the shiny paint. He has a set of questions in his head, and he checks each one. Do the brakes work? Are the tyres good, or worn out? Does the chain move smoothly? Is the seat comfortable? Will spare parts be easy to find later? Only if most answers are good does he agree to buy. The shiny paint alone never fools him, because he runs through his checklist first.

Philip Fisher did exactly this before trusting a company - but instead of a few cycle questions, he wrote down a famous list of fifteen points. It was a checklist of fifteen questions he would try to answer about any business before he would put his money into it. If a company gave good answers to most of them, it might be one of his rare, excellent, long-growing companies. If it failed too many, he walked away, no matter how exciting it looked.

We will not go through all fifteen - many overlap, and the exact list matters less than the spirit of it. What matters is the idea: do not judge a company by one shiny fact. Run it through a list of honest questions, and see how many it truly passes. Below are a handful of Fisher's questions, put into simple words.

Fisher's questions were not about the share price at all. They were about whether the business was strong and built to keep growing. Here are some of the most important ones, in kid-simple words.

1. Does it sell things people will keep needing for many years? A great company makes something with a long future, not a one-time fad. A snack families buy every week has a long future; a toy that is popular for one Diwali and forgotten by the next does not.

2. Is the company always trying to make new and better things? The world changes. A strong company keeps improving its products and inventing new ones, so it does not get left behind. A lazy company sells the same old thing until rivals pass it.

3. Does it earn good, healthy profit on what it sells? For every ₹100 of sales, how much is real profit? A business that keeps a healthy slice is strong; one that keeps almost nothing is fragile, because one bad year can wipe it out.

4. Are the bosses honest, especially about bad news? Anyone can boast when things go well. Fisher wanted bosses who told the truth even when things went wrong. A boss who hides problems is a danger, however clever he sounds.

5. Does the company treat its workers well? A company where people are happy and stay for years usually runs smoothly. One where workers are unhappy and keep leaving is often rotten inside, even if the outside looks fine.

6. Does it think about many years ahead, not just this month? Some companies squeeze out a big profit today by starving the future. Fisher liked bosses who were willing to earn a little less now to build something much bigger later.

Notice what all these questions have in common. Not one of them asks "has the price gone up?" or "is this share popular?" Every single one asks about the real business - its products, its future, its profit, and above all its people. Fisher believed that if the business was truly excellent on these questions, the share price would take care of itself over many years. And if the business failed too many questions, a rising price was just a trap waiting to snap shut.

The checklist also protects you from your own excitement. When you fall in love with one shiny fact - "everyone is buying this!" - the list quietly forces you to ask the boring, important questions you would otherwise skip. That is its real job: to slow you down and make you look at the whole business, not just the part that dazzles you.

illustrative Let us test two toy-making companies against a short version of Fisher's list. Both are growing fast, and both look exciting from the outside.

The first, "Sunrise Toys," passes almost every question. Its toys are the safe, sturdy kind that parents buy year after year - a long future. It keeps designing new toys, so it stays fresh. It keeps a healthy ₹18 of profit out of every ₹100 of sales. Its bosses openly admitted, in a bad year, that one new toy had failed - honest, even about failure. Its workers stay for years. And the bosses spend money now on better factories to grow bigger later. Six questions, six good answers.

The second, "Flash Toys," is the exciting one everyone is talking about. But run the list. Its big-selling toy is this year's craze - likely forgotten next year, so a short future. It has invented nothing new; it is riding one lucky hit. It keeps only ₹4 profit out of every ₹100, so a single bad season could sink it. Its bosses boast loudly but went quiet when a product had problems - a bad sign. And workers keep leaving. On the checklist, Flash Toys fails almost everything, even though its price is soaring.

Same excitement, very different answers. If you only watched the rising price, the two would look alike. The checklist pulled them apart - and it told you that Sunrise was built to last while Flash was built to fall. That is the whole point of running the questions before you trust.

A checklist is not a scorecard you tick blindly. It is tempting to count "5 out of 6 passed" and buy at once. But the questions are not all equal, and the answers are rarely a clean yes or no. A dishonest boss (one failed question) can be more dangerous than three small weaknesses put together. Use the list to think, not to do sums. Some single failures should stop you cold, no matter how many other boxes are ticked.

The answers are hard to get, and easy to fake. How do you really know if the bosses are honest, or if workers are happy? A company will always say nice things about itself. Getting true answers takes the patient "asking around" of scuttlebutt, and even then you may be fooled by a smooth story. A checklist is only as good as the honesty of the answers you feed it.

Passing the list today does not lock in tomorrow. A company that gives wonderful answers this year can change. Good bosses leave, products age, and profits shrink. The checklist tells you about the business now; it cannot promise the answers will stay the same. You have to keep re-asking the questions over the years, not run the list once and forget it.

The habit behind the fifteen points travels perfectly to India, and to everyday life. Whether you are looking at a shop, a service, or a company you can see around you, it helps to have a small list of honest questions and to ask them all before you trust. Does this thing have a long future? Are the people behind it honest? Do they treat their workers and customers fairly? Do they keep improving? These questions work for choosing a tuition centre or a family business just as well as for reading a company.

The limits are the same everywhere, though. For a large listed company you cannot get every answer, and some answers you get will be polished stories, not the plain truth. Fisher himself said his list was hard to complete - you would rarely answer all fifteen, and you had to judge with incomplete information. So use the checklist as Fisher truly meant it: a set of honest questions to slow you down and force you to look at the whole business - its future, its profit, and above all its people - rather than a magic formula that hands you a yes or a no. The judgement is still yours to make, carefully and humbly.

• Ask about the future, not just today. Will people still need this product in ten years, or is it a passing craze?
• Check if it keeps improving. A strong company keeps inventing and bettering its products; a weak one sells the same old thing.
• Look at the profit slice. For every ₹100 of sales, is there a healthy profit left, or almost nothing?
• Test the bosses' honesty. Do they admit bad news, or only boast? A boss who hides problems fails the most important question.
• Watch how workers are treated. People who stay for years are a quiet sign of a well-run business.
• Weigh the answers, don't just count them. One failed question about honesty can matter more than several small strengths.