Move at the speed of your wisdom

 

1. Experience builds wisdom,
2. Wisdom “calculates” risks,
3. Calculated risks pay off!

In 5 years starting ’85 – the reigning chess king, Karpov took on Kasparov in 100+ games. Karpov started brilliantly (5-0) in the 1^st 30 but was decimated 0-7 in the last 70 games. Neither were doing things differently but 20 years later, Kasparov summed, “Later, I could see ‘em coming.”

After a watchful stint and a well-paced innings, the batsman steps out or reverse sweeps to step up scoring. The risk pays off. Commentator: “He’s seeing the ball like a football.”

In a racy tech world, product mortality is high and the best plan for 2 years. I realized on a visit to Panasonic (Jhajjar) they’re different – “Old” Konosuke Matsushita had planned for 200 years and Panasonic had broadly stuck to it! How? Factory manager: “After 50 years in trade, he just knew”. Matsushita had died 95y old, 72 at the helm.

Last week, the head of an investment firm explained to me why they’re fast in evaluating. “We move at the speed of our wisdom”. He only invests in what he knows.

In OfBusiness’ underwriting, we move at 3x the pace a year ago. Same parameters, same kind of companies and hopefully we’re wiser.

1. Experience builds wisdom,
2. Wisdom “calculates” risks,
3. Calculated risks pay off!