Working Capital Conversations

If throughout its history GE brought good things to life, you might say that – along with a few select others – Beth Comstock brought imagination to GE. And if you listen to her, you will understand how to bring it your own business, too. Beth’s story, perhaps, might seem hard to imagine. She began in PR and rose to become a GE Vice Chair. Along the way, among other roles, she served as GE’s first Chief Marketing Officer in 20 years and operated GE Business Innovations. She has also left her mark on American popular culture. Beth helped lead GE’s strategic shift to “ecomagination” and the “imagination at work” brand campaign; she served as President of Integrated Media at NBC Universal, where she launched Hulu. She also green lit GE’s iconic post-9/11 ad of a resolute Lady Liberty rolling up her sleeves, climbing off her podium, and the simple words: “We will roll up our sleeves. We will move forward together. We will overcome. We will never forget.”  What does imagination look like? That’s what Beth explains in her terrific and personal new book “Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change.” It’s also what she explains to me in this conversation.  

it sounds like the set up for a bad comedy routine: What is the role of morality in business -- business ethics -- today?

But in an age where reputation matters – where a business’ brand and customer connections can be ruined almost faster than you can “Tweet this” – not just understanding, but doing, the right thing is more than nice… it’s a business imperative.

But what is “the right thing?” For example, how should businesses balance social benefit with bottom line revenue? For whom does a business operate? And is there a place for morality in the boardroom?

My conversation today is with someone who sits, as they say, in the room where it happens. Jules Coleman is one of the nation’s preeminent moral philosophers. For years, he was the Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School. He then became the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning at New York University. Today, Coleman serves on a number of corporate boards as a Senior Strategic Advisor, bringing his decades of theoretical thought and analysis to the practical application of global business.

For Private Equity, last year was a rocket ship. Five years of record-level fund-raising left the industry flush with capital: So called Dry powder – uncommitted funds sitting ready to invest -- hit a record high of $1.7 trillion. And for good reason. Even if PE firms found something to buy, chances are it was pricy: Buyout purchase price multiples rose to new highs. Meanwhile, with nearly 8,000 PE firms registered globally, the challenges to standout continue to grow. So what’s next for Private Equity? How should GPs think about fundraising, investments, exits and more? What role will technology play – how can GPs be sure they’re not investing in the next industry to be disrupted? And what about LPs – what questions should they be asking as they look for new and better places to seek returns?To find out, I spoke with Tim O’Connor, Partner in the Private Equity Group at Bain & Company. 

Where do ideas and investment intersect? Michael Moe is founder of GSV, a modern merchant bank that invests, advises, and partners with the fastest growing, most dynamic companies in the world… what they call “the Stars of Tomorrow.” As you’ll hear, GSV – which stands for Global Silicon Valley – runs various investment vehicles, including the publicly traded GSV Capital. You may know of some of the companies in the GSV vehicles have invested in: Facebook, Spotify, Twitter, Lyft, Dropbox, Coursera, among others. I thought did. But GSV is far from your traditional investment play. They also incubates ideas – GSV Labs is just one example – next generation insights and technologies that, they expect, will help drive next generation business solutions. How does it work? As Moe explains, GSV has created an active web of companies, advisors, ideas, and investments across several key emerging growth industries, including Education, Big Data, Sustainability, Social/Mobile, and more. The result was a terrific conversation that covered the principles of emerging growth investing, thoughts on the pros – and cons – of the role tech plays in our daily lives, and what, exactly, defines innovation today.  

 

As we consider the various challenges any nation faces, teaching our children – preparing them with the tools required to be successful, active players in a continually evolving society – is likely one of the most important and hardest. The challenge is particularly great for children who experience various forms of trauma, including poverty. What’s required – from new insights to teacher training to school design and beyond – to help them succeed? It turns out, science has something to say about this – something my guest calls “The Science of Adversity.” Dr. Pamela Cantor is President and CEO of Turnaround for Children. She practiced child psychiatry for nearly two decades, specializing in trauma and founded Turnaround after co-authoring a study on the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City schoolchildren. Dr. Cantor recognized that the scientific research on stress and the developing brain that she had learned in medical school should be translated into practices to help children and schools challenged by the effects of unrelenting adversity. As background, Dr. Cantor is a Visiting Scholar in Education at Harvard University, a member of the Council of Distinguished Scientists for the National Commission on Social, Emotional & Academic Development, and a leader of the Science of Learning and Development Initiative. An Ashoka Fellow, Dr. Cantor was awarded the 2014 Purpose Prize for Intergenerational Impact. Dr. Cantor started Turnaround to help schools understand the impact of adversity on learning and to put children on a healthier developmental trajectory so they can live the lives they choose. Specifically, Turnaround for Children translates neuroscientific research into tools and strategies for schools serving students impacted by adversity, in order to accelerate healthy development and academic achievement. How does it work? That’s what we discussed.

For anyone in the workplace, the question of how to move to the next level is complex and often personal. As leaders and managers seek higher responsibility and authority and impact, we often find that the very skills that got us to where we are now aren't especially useful in moving forward.

For women in the workplace, this challenge often can be even more complicated. Few people have thought, written, or spoken more on the subject than Sally Helgesen, world renown women's leadership expert and co-author with best-selling writer Marshall Goldsmith of a really important new book, How Women Rise, Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, or Job. Sally notes that women's distinctive strengths and behaviors provide them with many advantages. Yet the very habits that help them early in their careers can hold them back as they seek to rise. How could women identify and address the habits most likely to get in their way as they seek to move to a higher level? Some background on Sally. She's an author, speaker, and consultant with a clear mission to help women recognize, articulate, and act on their greater strengths. She's written a number of books, including the best-selling, The Female Advantage, Women's Ways of Leadership, held as the classic work on women's leadership styles, and continuously in print since 1990. Sally delivers workshops and keynotes in corporations, partnership firms, universities, and associations globally. She's consulted with the United Nations, and led seminars at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Smith College. So how do women rise? That's what we discussed.

It is impossible to have followed Education for the last 40 years and not know Chris Whittle. He’s a serial education entrepreneur – a “reformer,” as he puts it – and as you’ll hear, he’s not done yet. After various bold ventures – founding Edison Schools, co-founding Avenues: The World School in Manhattan – Whittle is now preparing perhaps his biggest venture yet: What he calls the first modern school. It’s a global vision – K through 12 education for the globalized, connected world. And I mean global: Once completed, the Whittle School & Studio will have 36 campuses across 30 of the world’s leading cities – some 90,000 students and thousands of faculty. The first two campuses are scheduled to open in Washington D.C. and Shenzhen, China next year. Whittle aims, simply, to reform the institutionalized, one-size-fits-all approach and make relevant, flexible, and personalized education at scale – a new approach to learning in innovative physical environments around the world. The vision is attracting some leading educators – and education reformers – in the world. Can it work? Can Whittle and team create something that not only lifts individual students in this unique school, but extends beyond and impacts education more broadly from American urban centers to underserved populations globally? That’s what I asked him.

In our continuing discussions on Davos – looking not only at what happened at The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting recently, but perhaps more importantly, what business leaders globally might expect its ongoing impact to be – we spoke with Roberto Quarta.

Quarta is a longtime partner with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and serves as Chairman of CD&R Europe, based in London. He also is Chairman of global media giant WPP, as well as Chairman of Smith & Nephew, a FTSE 100 listed global medical devices firm. Among many other roles, Quarta also previously served as Chief Executive and then Chairman of BBA Group.

Quarta is, clearly, no stranger to global business… nor, as you’ll hear now, to Davos.

The World Economic Forum held its annual meeting recently in the little Swiss ski town of Davos. There was plenty of snow this year, but no one focused much on hitting the slopes. This was one of the most anticipated Davos gatherings in years.

The reasons are obvious: There’s a lot going on in the world today and plenty of questions:

• How are businesses and countries balancing long-term globalization trends with the more recent populist pressures?
• What do new technology impacts – particularly AI – mean for industry, employment, competition, and innovation.
• And then there are the regional issues, from Europe to Asia to, of course, U.S. President Donald Trump’s highly-publicized visit.

What were the reactions – and more importantly, what should business leaders globally make sure to understand? To find out, we spoke with David Novak, a partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and based in London.

It’s an age old question across all types of investing: can you have it all?

In other words, can investors get the twin benefits of doing well and doing good? For the various private equity participants, the question has become more urgent over the last several years, particularly around ESG, Environmental, Social and Governance issues. As requirements around doing good increase from politicians, LPs, employees, even GPs, the need for GPs and LPs to deliver it all continues to rise. Put simply, what are the broad, social consequences of private equity investments?