You have one hour and five numbers on each of three businesses. Which one would you study further, and what would you ask for first?

Take Ilavan Foods forward, and ask first for the split of its 9% growth into volume and price. It earns Rs 66 crore of EBITDA, carries 2.3x of net debt and sells through 40,000 outlets, so no customer can hurt it. Sthir Pipes earns more but hangs on 12 contracts at 3.3x leverage. Nabhas grows fastest, but a 6% margin on Rs 300 crore of revenue says the revenue line may not be the company's own money.

Less than you want and more than you fear. Imagine choosing between three stalls to buy at a market with only the takings, the rent and the number of regulars: you cannot value any of them, but you can say which one would survive losing a customer. Revenue times margin gives you the earnings, net debt over earnings gives you the leverage, and the customer count tells you what kind of business you are looking at. Ilavan earns Rs 66 crore, Sthir Rs 126 crore, Nabhas Rs 18 crore. Sthir is the largest earner and the most levered at 3.3x; Ilavan is 2.3x; Nabhas has cash.

Because it names each company's single point of failure. A household on one salary is in a different position from one with three earners, even at the same income. Sthir's 12 contracts mean one lost tender removes about 8% of revenue, and at 3.3x leverage that is a covenant conversation, not a bad quarter. Ilavan's 40,000 outlets mean its risk is a slow shift in taste, which shows up over years, not in a week. Nabhas's 2 million users are not customers in the same sense; they are transactions, and the real customers may be the bus operators who set the commission.

With little information, the question you ask shows the interviewer how you would spend the next hour. For Ilavan, ask for the growth split into volume and price: 9% growth that is all price in an inflationary year is a different business from 9% that is new outlets and new packs. For Sthir you would ask for the contract-by-contract margin and the tender pipeline; for Nabhas, whether Rs 300 crore is gross booking valueThe full ticket price that passes through a platform, as opposed to the commission the platform keeps as its own revenue. or commission, because a 6% margin on commission revenue is healthy and a 6% margin on pass-through revenue is nothing at all.

Then say what would change your pick. If Sthir's 12 contracts are with twelve different state water boards and its margin per contract is stable, concentration is less frightening and its lower growth is priced in. If Nabhas's revenue is commission, it may be the best business on the sheet and the one with the least need for a sponsor's debt. A ranking with the test that would reverse it is the answer; a ranking alone is a guess with confidence.