Ideas are commodities. Execution is not. The most important critical success factor in business is investing in the right management team and not investing in the right idea. Why is it that most business schools don't dedicate any time to assessing the quality of a company's management team? Shouldn't this be the most important thing to consider before making an investment in a company?
We spend far too much time analyzing business models, markets and financial statements and we often overlook the most important investment quality, which is who is running the company and are they the right choice?
This is especially true in the money management or venture capital industry where the most important success factor in any investment is making sure that you have the right management team in place. The right management team can pivot, adapt and react to a material crisis or constantly changing end markets.
Past performance is indicative of future performance if you have the right CEO and the right management team. Yes that was a very controversial statement, but I believe that if you bet on a management team that has been extraordinarily successful in the past, then your chance of success betting on this management team in the future is materially higher than it is betting on a B or a C management team.
The best CEOs and entrepreneurs don't have a job; they have a passion. Superb examples of passionate CEOs and entrepreneurs include Richard Branson of Virgin, Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Christian Chabot of Tableau.
The best CEOs and businesspeople in the world are passionate salespeople with unbelievably positive attitudes. Their positive attitudes lead to an incredibly positive corporate culture.
