YouSaid · the spoken record

Bill Ford

lines on the record: 68
first: 2021-07-22
most recent: 2021-07-22
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Absolutely, Tom. It's how we got to life sciences. We got there more because we thought what we knew about technology and technology investing, AI, data science, et cetera, was going to become relevant for life sciences. And to your exact words, it was the convergence that made us think we should be in this space. And of course, significant innovation, entrepreneurship, value creation. But I think you're completely right about that. And that's sure what we got there.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So interesting because you think of the intersection of technology and biology that has really amped up a game for both industries and taken things to the next level. The fact that we could have Bible vaccines in less than a year to combat a global pandemic is pretty”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Can be a super interesting place. We've made a big commitment to life sciences here at General Atlantic, and for that reason. But if I was starting my career, early my career, I think that'd be an industry I would pick. And because I think when you look at careers, a lot of it, are you in the fast-moving stream of the slow-moving stream? If I'd gone into the energy industry, that became a tougher place to be, no matter how talented you were. I would probably be trying to do something like that.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a hard question. I love my job. I don't know. I really like what I do. I like investing. I'll say answer it slightly differently. I think we're moving into the golden age of biology and biological invasion. We both learned that we were at Rockefeller together. And I think that's an industry that is going to have such growth, innovation, and impact on the world. If I was a younger person, I would be thinking, well, that'd be off the exciting place to get involved with. It really does remind me of technology when I first got exposed to it in the early 80s, when, I mean, technology had been around, right? You'd have IBM and Intel. And I mentioned Apple, but it was a very early days of what was going to happen. And I feel the exact same way in the biotech biology space, which has been a lot of important successes already, but we're just at the beginning. I think it's an industry that's going to continue to transform health outcomes around the world.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Going to be a lot more interesting than crypto because I think that takes out the currency risk and just says, yes, I want to transact in a digital environment, but I want to do it without taking the risk that when I convert it back to the dollar, I get my dollar, I get my euro, I get my yuan. So I think you two will be somewhere around that, but I don't think this is fed. I don't think this is something that's going to go away next month when Bitcoin goes back to a lower price or anything.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“a fun question we're spending a lot of time on it i think this is here to stay i think we're through the early development phase of the industry or i like to call the wild west phase we're ending that and we're starting to see the shape of how crypto and blockchain can potentially have a role in finance and the financial system going forward and i think that we lose the plot a little bit when we get obsessed with the price of bitcoin and the cyber currencies and we miss the fact that this idea of decentralized finance and how even things like digital currencies digital dollars digital yuan could potentially transform finance in a very positive way so i think we're going to see tremendous innovation now but it's going to move from the wild west phase to more a phase where it really serves the financial system more effectively my own bet is that stablecoin is”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Fundamental disagreement, which we do have. So I'm hoping that the Biden administration will move towards more what I call constructive engagement, and that will lead to a better relationship long-term.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Stronger and being a better competitor to China and take them on. I'll bet on our values and our system any day. But if we don't invest in this country in infrastructure and education and all the things in R&D that make this country strong and powerful, we might start to lose the competitive game vis- ⁇-vis China. So I have a more nuanced view about them. And by the way, that doesn't mean we're going to agree on everything on human rights. We have absolute right to say we don't agree with that. We want you to think about it differently. They may not agree, but that's okay. Competitors cannot agree on everything. The other thing I don't like, and I'll stop on China, is we need a dialogue. We need to be talking to each other of these issues. It's just like any relationships. There's going to be moments of conflict and deep disagreement, but you want to be talking about it. You don't want to be sitting in your own room and complaining about it. You want to be engaged and talking and using to a better outcome, even if there are areas of...”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Strategic competit I'm pro-China. I'm open about it in the sense that I admire what they've accomplished in the last 34 years. I admire where they're going as a country. They are ambitious, just like the United States is ambitious. And they are a very strong strategic competitor. That doesn't mean we can't find lots of areas to cooperate. We can. Climate being one of them, but there's a whole bunch of areas where we can work on nuclear proliferation, a whole bunch of things where we have common interest to work together to solve global problems. So cooperation is a word that comes to mind at times. But I also think that I get a little upset when I see people talking about this enemy or competitor. I mean, they're a strong strategic competitors when people play in a football game, when you're playing the Patriots, you're playing a strong football team. You better be ready to play against them. You better have your game plan ready to go. I think what we need to do is worry more about us and making this country.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Then I'd like to see the inflation go back to a more manageable level. And if it didn't, then I'd be raising my hand and saying, I'm worried about this. But right now, I don't think that's, and I think people are mischaracterizing the recovery is the reason why.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do have a comment about this. I think that we have to recognize that this is not a normal business cycle recovery that we're going through. This is a reopening of an economy that was shut down because of something that none of us have ever seen before, a global pandemic. And coming out of it, you're coming out with tremendous pent-up demand that has been held back. And I think it's going to be natural to have some level of inflation here for a period of quarters. If it was a normal gradual cyclical recovery or recovery coming out of a financial crisis like what you have all experienced, I think it's a very, very different from reopening and boom, the demand comes back. I am not as worried about some big inflation prints here in the next couple of quarters. Now, I will be if in a year from now it's holding up because I think the pent-up demand will be absorbed and dissipate and you move back more towards a normalized growth rate in the US something like 2%-ish and a global growth rate of 2.5%, hopefully three.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I like both. Would in fact, Steve Denning taught me that he always said it's management market and model, meaning like business model, what he always, the three M's always wanted to focus on and wanted to get as much of the three as you could, hopefully all three if we're really lucky. Exactly. He's a list right at all three, but usually when you wanted to get at least two of the three going your way. But for me, management.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh gosh, you're asking me a really tough question because I love both. To me, management always makes the difference. Great leaders and great leadership. I like good markets. I like good business models. But at the end of the day, it's the great business leaders that do amazing work. And I've seen this really, I could give you my list of people that just blow my mind on how good they are as leaders. But it just comes down to management and leadership at the end of the day. I mean, I could name 10 of them, but I just admire deeply when I've watched what they've done as leaders, but I'd bet on management.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And there's a tremendous power and synergy that comes on when the committee and the staff are working together for a common goal and really help each other. It's powerful. So I think when we get the first part right and then you add a committee that wants to really further the mission of the investment office, it's powerful stuff.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Couldn't agree more on all those points, but particularly the last point. There have been folks that I've come across in my career where I've always been amazed at how they sometimes think of their committee as adversarial is probably too strong a word, but when they feel like there's some distance. And that they're not really pulling on the same war. And everybody's there for that mission. And they are pulling on the same war. And they all want the same things. And so if there's a gap, it's incumbent, I think, on both sides to really create those bridges and that campaign. So that they're looked at as an ally”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wanted to say one more thing, and I could, Tom. I do think having a great investment committee that partners with the investment staff leads to very, very virtuous outcomes. Because one, that's a great finding network. It's a great sounding board if a really capable committee, an engaged committee comes together with the staff, some really great stuff can happen. And they can find the right balance of allocating what decisions need to get allocated to the team and which decisions should come up to the committee. And you've been part of it. But when I think when you get that right, in addition to all the things I said about the team and process, you get really good investment outcomes.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It took to my extent no substitute for hard work. You know that you worked incredibly hard digging in on a manager, doing your homework, doing your referencing. All of them would do that. And all of them would leave no stone unturned. And I remember, I love, because you've called me so many times her references and Letitia's called me for references and everybody. The depth of questioning about how they're going into a manager, they're thinking about allocating capital, I'm like, wow, that's I've given them my money. And so I think there's no substitute for that diligence and hard work when you're a fiduciary managing capital. All of them have been willing to do that. And not just trust their gut, so to speak. I think that's a lot of it, those elements. There was no, by the way, there was no magic formula. I mean, at least I never saw anyone find one along the way that led to it. It was just that combination of people process hard work, real diligence.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, hey, Tom, you're one of them too, because you did it at Rockefeller. One, they built great teams around them. This is not a one-man show. There's a tendency to think, oh my God, there's that all-powerful, all insightful CIO who has these great ideas about investing. What I've actually seen is them building great teams and great processes. And really through the process and the team getting to great decisions. And I learned from my predecessor, Peter Nanasi at Amherst College when I was turned the SM committee about it comes down to a couple basic things, manager selection and asset allocation. And those tools are pretty fundamental to everybody. And you're making decisions around those things. And again, I think the best CIOs are ones who say, how do I make really high quality decisions there? Well, they do it by having very strong teams and very strong processes, not by being the absolute genius or investment guru, I think. All of them have done that.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Finding the time to And just not as opposed to speak so in such a doing. This one is going to be very self serving, which may get worked with some of the best CIOs in the business in Marizie Geisler, now Letitia Johnson, Amy Falls, Jason Klein. What are some of the key qualities that make an effective CIO? And I'm going to be taking rigorous notes here.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I love skiing and skiing has always been a great way for me to get out into the natural beauty of the mountains and it's something I do with my family and still do. And I've loved that because, especially for those of us, I think who live in an urban environment and work in an urban environment, being able to go to places that there's natural beauty and open spaces, to me it does open me up in a really great way. The beach is great too. But I think beach mountains, I mean, it sounds like a cliche, but I think, again, if you live and work in an urban intense urban place that operates at a high pace of activity, going to places like that really do have a great way to clear your mind and put things in perspective. And the hardest thing as an investor, leader, thinker, is to step back and gain perspective because when you're in it, you're in it every day. And those are the places I like to go.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think I remember John F. Kennedy talking about when he would go on his vacations, rigorous relaxation. He would never be the type of person who would just go somewhere and poop out on the beach, but he would just really like be very active, but get distracted away from his daily routine to help recharge.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's really impactful and it's really a better way to lead, even though it's a harder way to lead. So I've worked to get better at that over time.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Be tennis, it could be anything, but have something that is a real life interest or hobby that creates a diversion and becomes something that really engages you. I think that was good advice too. And I would amplify both, make sure there's time to recharge and be with your family and then also have other interests. The other thing I've learned as a leader that I guess I was told by Stephen others is really important to give candid feedback to people. I think especially someone like me, I've got it more affable personality. You don't like to give tough feedback to folks, but the best people want good tough feedback. They want to know how they can get better. They want to know what their weaknesses are. And I've been so amazed over the years when you do it, how telling people really can adjust and improve and become better professionals. And so I think a lot of people are reluctant to do it because it's not that comfortable and it takes real preparation, real effort. But actually.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, there's been plenty work life balance. I've gotten that for sure. Like, make sure you take time to recharge, get a break. I say it and my colleagues say you say it, but you don't often do it. I'm like, really encourage people to take their vacations, take their time off, go recharge, be with their families. I mean, it's so important. And for the time you give, you'll be better when you're working because you'll be refreshed and have a clear mind. And I give that advice. And I was given that advice. I didn't follow it perfectly. I would give it again. I think that's really important. Also, have some outside interests that I think make you more interesting. This was said to me, you know, that, again, takes your mind off your work and the problems that you have, the day-to-day problem. Every business leader, you're solving problems, new problems emerge. They have to be worked on. Find something that pulls your mind away from that. Doesn't matter what it is. Could be boating, it could be golf.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and we're becoming more divergent, not more convergent, which is where I think the danger starts to really come in. And you sort of encourage behavior as people that move and change.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Growing and attracting talent here. And frankly, every one of them, with maybe the exception of Con Edison, who's a member and a valued member, can't really move. Everybody else is mobile. They can build their workforces elsewhere. They're not locked in here. So we've been trying to communicate that view in a more fundamental way, but it is a concern. It's a very real concern.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Here, and they have to feel safe to feel a transportation is accessible, that housing is affordable. They have to feel that otherwise they're going to be able to make choices to move elsewhere. So taxes is one element, but you better have the whole package, or we will start to lose employers and we'll start to lose employees. And I don't mean to pick on a city. I'll probably get in trouble for this, but San Francisco has moved so far to the progressive end. They've lost 100,000 residents out of 900,000 people. That's a huge number. We've actually done a lot of research on what happened there to understand it. But there is a real cost to this ultimately. And we're trying to balance the needs of society with making sure it's attractive for employers. We across the partnership didn't find this no remarkable, but our members employ 1.7 million people in New York. It's a big number. And so we want them to keep.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think part of the debate gets lost in just taxes because I think it's not just taxes. It's what worries me. And I did get a sort of a front row seat on this from working with the partnership. I've been the co-chair for the last three years. I'll finish up in December. And what worries me is that the dispersion of policies among states and cities in the country, you have some that are going so much towards the progressive end and so much more towards high taxation and you have other states and cities that aren't. I mean, it used to be much more clustered. And now, I mean, I think certain cities, especially after we've seen what can happen with mobile work in the pandemic, when you have that dispersion, people are going to start making different choices. And my argument to people in New York, government and political leaders is we need to make this place attractive for people to build businesses and employ people and for people to raise families.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“SA Levine, who we know from Rockefeller. So I have bittersweet there a little bit, but he went deep on that. Another person I mentioned, Dave Hodgson, our vice chairman, was he was the chairman of the board of Johns Hopkins Medical School and Medical Center and made a huge difference there. And it started with trusteeship and then it evolved to chairmanship and then really making a significant difference. And I've said to my partners that that's a wonderful track. Maybe you don't have time to do a chairmanship now early on, but maybe that's something as you get deeper into the mission of the organization. You could apply your skills of leadership because a lot of the stuff translates perfectly. What do we do every day? We're trying to build great enterprises, great boards, great organizations, mission driven. Well, that applies pretty directly to the philanthropic world too. And so I think we have the ability to make a difference. It's great that we got so many of our partners involved in so many things. One of the board of hospital for special surgery, one on the board of Mount Sinai. I mean, we just Lincoln Center, Martin Center.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wish I was doing it more successfully, but I think you said a lot of the exact right things, Tom, which is you've got to pick things you really believe in and where you want to make time for it. When I talked to my younger partners, I encourage them to get philanthropy. I say, you know, do things you deeply care about so it doesn't feel like a burden when you see that meeting on your calendar, but you say, boy, I'm really excited to go over and do that. It's so complimentary. It's so fun. And I feel like I'm making a difference. It should feel that way. And when it does, it's great and you're willing and able to make time for it. My encouragement there is don't try to do too much, but figure a few things that you really care about and then go deeper and deeper and deeper and maybe even work to chairmanship. We've got some such wonderful examples here. I mean, Steve Denning, when I took over the CEO ship from him, one of the first things he did because he had the time to do it was to become head of the board of trustees at Stanford. He had seven or eight years. He was the head of the board. He loved the successful search for their current president, Martin.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think you spoke about certainly the financial resources and sharing that, which all organizations can use more of, but the time and what you dedicate to that. That to me is where it really hits home. And I was talking to your colleagues earlier this morning that there's so many things that I've learned from you over the years. But one thing is just this idea of balance and how you're able to be involved with so many things. But at least from the outsider looking in, again, I don't see you ever have taken on anything where you're not fully engaged in it. And if you don't have the time to be engaged, you wouldn't do it. But when you do, when you're focused on something, you do a deep dive. And that's the most important thing in your life at that moment and staying that kind of focused approach is incredible. I think very few people in the world have that skill. Can you talk about how you find and maybe work-life balances may be a cliche because maybe it's just all one thing. Maybe there isn't a separate work and separate life is interwoven with your entire life.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At what we're doing with ESG and building ESG principles into how we invest. And again, all traces back to Chuck in 1980. So it's something we care a lot about.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To lots of great causes, lots of great institutions around the world, and has really has sunset his foundation, the Atlantic philanthropies. That's not for everybody. It's not the right strategy for every foundation or every philanthropist, but it was for Chuck. And I think that he set an example of that kind of philanthropy. And I think he achieved his goal of having an impact on the world during his lifetime. So again, it's built into all of us here. We have our own foundation. We have the General Atlantic Foundation. We take some of our profits and put them in there. And right now its main goal is to support the philanthropy of the people at the firm. So as to say, you're getting involved with XYZ institution. We want to encourage that and will amplify your philanthropy. And of course, supporting the good work of our investors and others. But longer term, we'll think even about broadening that mandate of the foundation to do even more for the community. And then, of course, it goes now all the way back.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“World, so like Gettering, among other things, was an encouragement to get involved in philanthropy and community service early. I remember having direct conversations with Chuck saying, don't wait till you're 60 years old to go on, become a trustee and start to give. Do it early in your career. And so because of that, the firm always made time or really encouraged people at an early age get involved philanthropically. And it starts more with your time and then it might move more to your financial resources as well. And so when I look back on it, I went on the board of Rockefeller in 2006, 2007. That's pretty relatively young person. And also when we're also getting around that same time. And that really goes back all the way back to this philanthropic ethos. And of course, you know, Chuck, for those who don't know, I'm the two-minute story. He really is seen as the father of the giving pledge. This is a person who now in his late 80s has given away almost a little bit over now $9 billion.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So glad you asked that question because if you go all the way back to the founding of the firm, you know, cultures are strong things in general. There were a few things that Chuck Feeney, our founding investor, left us with. One was a conviction and belief in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship making the world a better place. And this is a self-made person from New Jersey who went to Cornell on a scholarship and then started a business right after college that built into the duty free shopper business and produced significant wealth for him. a conviction about entrepreneurship and innovation goes back to our roots. The other conviction is philanthropy because Chuck from the beginning had a view that the wealthy was going to generate was going to be used to benefit society at large and the world at large. And that was built into the ethos from the beginning and he encouraged significant philanthropy among all of us. And it took a lot of different forms, but the best form which led me to Rockefeller and led me to”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have touched on so many unique elements of General Axe culture, and they're quite consistent with each other, and they all kind of hang together to create the special place that this organization is. I want to ask you about the role of philanthropy and community service as it relates to GA, which can be traced all the way back to Chuck Feeney, the founder and his roots and what he did with his wealth. Me as an outsider looking in, that has always been a huge part of your fabric. But maybe you could talk about how that guides you in terms of your true north.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just as investors and our internal organization will get comfortable with them. We're a partnership culture. We're not in command and control industrial corporation. The team has to get comfortable with them as leaders of the organization. So I'm a believer that succession in our sector needs to be pretty well planned, needs to be long term. But you have to work on it. And I think we've seen, I know you've seen many examples of firms in the industry that haven't really planned this well. And I think it starts from a view if it's a firm that is built around the personality of an individual and sees themselves that way. It's a much harder thing to do. General Atlantic was started as a firm in 1980, was managing the wealth of the family office. And then when we began to institutionalize in 1990 more in earnest in 2000, at that point in time, we thought about long-term leadership, long-term institutional success, and not just about an”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In investing, and particularly maybe in private equity, but I think beyond private equity, some of these transitions should be fairly long term. And the reason being is that something like the Wallace Foundation, you entrust your capital to us for a decade realistically. And you need to understand who you're entrusting your capital to. And I don't think it's right for a CEO to walk in the door and say, okay, I'm done on January 1, see you later. These are the guys taken over. And we say, wait a minute, I gave you my wallet for 10 years. There needs to be a chance for the investors to get comfortable with a succession plan and get comfortable the next generation of leaders first. And that takes time. And so we had a very deliberate plan with Martine Escobar, Gabe Calio, and Anton Levy that it would be a time where they had been the co-president role. I'd been the CEO at some point, I'll transition to being just chairman, and they'll begin to take over. But during this period, our investors will get to know them as leaders, not”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Before the ed sectors, but what we keep asking the question, and I don't think there's necessarily a right or wrong answer there, it's a matter of just doing it should be aligned with your business strategy and investment strategy and not be something divorced from that. We've had the really, really good fortune of people who have led the firm before me whose vision was always that General Lenick was going to be a firm that would exist far into the future and beyond their tenure. And so I'd inherited a tradition of, okay, you receive the mantle of leadership, you lead, you develop the firm, and then you're going to hand it to somebody else. And I thought that way from the beginning, it's while we elevated three of our most talented people to be co-presidents about a year and a half ago because we were already thinking in our minds, what's the future generation of leadership look like at General Atlantic? And I also have a pretty well-developed view that I developed with Steve Denning, a person I took over from and who was our chairman.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, let's talk about it in two different parts. I talk about capital and then let's go to succession separately. But they are, I do agree, they are related. But the first point is that if we were to take capital, I think there would have to be good reason for it. And I think good reason for it is that we need permanent capital to support the growth and success of our business. And then you're into a question of, okay, if you're going to take permanent capital because it's needed for your business, how do you do it? Do you do it with a private investment? Do you do it by retaining earnings? Do you do it by going public? There's a whole range of ways to do it. And I would say fairly frequently asking ourselves, are we being disadvantaged by not having more access to permanent capital? And what would it, if we had it, what would we do with it to strengthen our business, the idea of maintaining investment excellence for our investors? So we check it. Now, so far we've concluded that we don't really need it, that we have sufficient capital in the business to grow, to add talent, to add offices like you talked about.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Along the same lines, not to compare you guys with your peers, but a lot of your peers, again, based on their success, they have monetized a portion of their general partnership or the management company. When you think about is that something that GA would ever do and it kind of ties into succession planning as well. A lot of times that happens when there's a generation that is moving on and wants to take a piece of learned economics with them. How do you think about those issues?”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Seeing a lot of entrepreneurship and a lot of innovation going at the major global problem of climate change and the need to transition the energy sector from carbon-based energy to alternative energy. So that's an example where I think some of our skills might be highly relevant to investing in that area and it might call for a separate pool of capital. But that's sort of how we think about it.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That inside our core, if you think about it, we added a life sciences area most recently before that, a consumer area. Those were all new sectors that grew out of our global activity, but caused us to build new muscles and new capability. But they were always about growth, investing, about equity investing in enterprise building, which is what we know how to do. So that's what ended together. But now I think we are thinking about other areas that fit those criteria where we can be a real leader, really have excellent performance, and builds on our global platform, builds on our sector expertise, build on our focus on growth, innovation, and entrepreneurship. And one area we have our eye on right now that we're spending quite a bit of time on is climate sustainability and energy transition because we are starting to see more and more deal flow that in our core sectors like technology that are focused on this very, very important issue.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We always come back to those principles investment excellence and what does it mean for talent and culture. But I think the other thing is we thought about strategy at a level down is we've said at the core we're equity investors. So when we think about areas like credit and real estate, we have a very successful joint venture in credit with Atlantic Park that we did with Trip Smith out of GSO and it's been really successful and it was our first in many ways our first Freud into a new product and we did it because we were seeing credit situations in some of our portfolio companies, particularly in the healthcare and consumer space. And so we experimented this. But you know one thing that it did, it showed that we can stand up a new investment organization and stand up an investment process quite successfully. But it also reminded us where equity investors at heart. We're not credit people. And so I think any expansion would be around equity investing and building enterprise value because that's what we really understand. Now we've expanded”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Great question, Tom. Let me talk about it a couple different ways. Let's start with the touchstones that we go back to as we think about strategy, and then we'll talk about how our strategy has evolved. And I think will evolve. The touchdowns have always been about investment excellence is to say only do it if we think we can be very good at it and we can generate the returns our investors expect. Don't expand to expand or don't expand with a coverage strategy, what we have to be in credit or real estate. That's just not us. It's about if you can maintain investment excellence and it's a strategic fit, then you could consider it. The second is talented culture. This has become something that as I go longer into this, the more I come back to it, that for investment organizations, talent and culture is in some ways the most important thing. If you keep focused on great people in a culture that reinforces your investment values and your investment process and the way you want to work, it really is, it allows a firm to grow and expand successfully.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So Bill, so many of your peers in the private equity industry as they've been successful, they're really good at something. So there's kind of a natural tendency to imagine that you're really good at everything. So they've expanded into other product lines, such as public equities or into hedge funds or to other venture capital kind of going even between their stage. Guys, for the bulk of GA's history, have stuck pretty close to your knitting and just growth equity. And you turn it into an incredibly global franchise. When you think about the continued evolution of generalantic five and ten years from now, how do you think about expansion? Do you think that we can just continue to stay in our lane within just growth equity or are there areas that would be natural extensions of your strategy?”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Different cultures and working with colleagues that are from different nationalities. I mean, our nine person management committee, I think we have five non-U.S. passport holders of all different countries and we have French. Bolivian, Indian, and Chinese. So that's pretty fun”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We've done that. I think the other thing that we've done well that's hard is we've tried to really keep it one common culture, one integrated team. And so I've worked really hard about breaking down silos. So we don't want to have isolated geographic insector teams. We want them working together. And in fact, some of our best investments have been when a sector team, like our tech team and our Latin American team, are working together on a tech deal in Sao Paulo. And when they do that, we get great outcomes because we get the best of the industry knowledge and we get the best of the local geography to make good judgments. And so what that requires, though, is everybody being on the same team and wanting to work together and a compensation system and investment process that brings everybody together. And I think we've managed to do that. It's also more fun, by the way, to work together and we haven't talked about it. But one of the fun parts of my career, for sure from a kid from New Jersey, is learning about the world and learning about the world.”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're counting on our sector and geographic leaders to be navigating geographic risk and geographic issues and being highly local. We're counting on our sector teams to really understand the business models and the sub-themes in their areas, whether it's in the tech space or the life sciences space, et cetera. And so they're bringing these project forward. Our control system has been one, global central investment committee that evaluates all the opportunities, racks and stacks them, and tries to pick the best risk return opportunities that come at us. And I think we're pretty good at it. We, of course, we make mistakes like everybody with that check and balance, which is sector and geographic teams generating investable opportunities, evaluating them, and then bringing in them forward to an investment committee that are pretty well vetted at that point, and then having a very Socratic debate with the investment committee around does it meet our criteria around growth and are the”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think it starts with our focus on growth investing. We understand clearly that what drives our investment returns is company and market growth. And so a lot of our evaluation is around how big is the market? Can this company really grow at 25 or 30 percent during our investment horizon? Is this product or service one that it can really achieve market leadership in its space? We're asking all kinds of those kinds of questions at our investment committee. And they're applicable broadly from a healthcare investment to a technology investment. And what we all say to ourselves when we get investments wrong, it's typically because we got the growth case wrong. We overestimate the market size or how good the company's product or service was. So in our investment community, there's a lot of Socratic debate around those issues. And the thing that we have going for us, though, is that our sector and geographic leaders are deep in their area. And while the investment committee has to have some level of expertise,”
2021-07-22 · Capital Allocators · Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source