{"id":1885,"date":"2013-04-04T09:48:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T16:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/?p=1885"},"modified":"2015-01-28T12:58:41","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T20:58:41","slug":"investment-business-force-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masonmyers.com\/investment-business-force-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Unique Businesses Are A Force For Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best businesses are not just about making money.\u00a0 It is necessary to make money to stay in business, but it is not sufficient for the business to be worth your time.\u00a0 That is why the strongest businesses, in my opinion, are the ones that have a purpose beyond making money.\u00a0 The work is more interesting for everyone involved if there is meaning for the customers, for the employees, for a certain community, or whatever it may be.\u00a0 Why spend your time on something that has a single payoff (money) when you can have multiple payoffs (money and meaning) from the same investment of time and money?<\/p>\n

And, by the way, I have found that the businesses that strive to have a more meaningful purpose also can get the best financial returns.<\/p>\n

I put together my investment fund, Greybull Stewardship<\/a>, so that unique businesses have a unique alternative for financing that will allow them to maintain their strategy.\u00a0 Taking investment capital from an outsider means that a business owner has to incorporate the investor’s dreams, visions, constraints, and realities.\u00a0 By selling to traditional private equity, that means another quick, disruptive sale of the company in 3-5 years (that may be the ideal plan for some businesses, which is totally fine).\u00a0 By selling to a strategic acquirer, that means morphing the acquired company into the objectives of the acquirer.\u00a0 Greybull Stewardship allows current management and owners to continue with their unique strategy because my fund structure allows greater alignment with the current owners and fewer outside constraints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related Topic: Book Conscious Capitalism<\/em> by John Mackey<\/a>, the CEO of Whole Foods<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I found recent comments by Mackey to be a helpful addition to this discussion.\u00a0 Mackey explained in a podcast from the Harvard Business Review<\/a> that a business person should improve his ability to answer the question, “What do you do?”\u00a0 Ideally, the answer should not be simply to “make money.”\u00a0 It should be something with a meaningful purpose as a doctor says, “heal people” in addition to making a living.\u00a0 As he writes, “all businesses operate in a broader system thick with interdependencies.\u00a0 Being a conscious capitalist means that you don’t ignore those interdependencies by taking a narrow view of the impact you make.\u00a0 You remain aware of the whole system. . . . But here’s what you would not be signing on for: the overthrow of capitalism. . . . Capitalism is the greatest system of social cooperation and source of prosperity ever devised — and we can make it even better.”<\/p>\n

Related posts and links:<\/h6>\n