Investing and knowing what you are doing

One of the interesting things I have become aware of since I started working in the world of finance is that industry expertise, while undoubtedly necessary and important for anyone working in a single given sector, is not too difficult to acquire. I have only worked in telecom, media and technology ("TMT" in industry lingo) for a year and a half now, but in many respects I am reaching the saturation point in terms of what is necessary for an investor in that industry to invest well. While setting up a mobile network is difficult, technical and complex work, the investor only has to be able to identify who can do that job well and how the fundamental drivers in a business model must perform for the network to yield a sufficient return.

This is interesting to me because it means that investors, to a certain extent, can be very mobile across industries, acquiring expertise in the new sectors they move to in the space of a year or so. The more relevant skill set (understanding business models, market analysis etc.) is something that is continuously developed even as you move across different industries. In fact, it is arguable that it is better to stimulate the development of this skill set by contextualizing it differently in the exploration of various types of businesses. Moreover, exactly what makes someone a good investor seems to become increasingly unidentifiable as one's abilities grow - some would call it investor intuition.

Bureaucracy

Frustrates me. Unbelievably. Well, what on Earth are you working at the World Bank for then, you might ask? It would be a good question.

I would love to spill the beans on the exciting administrative hiccups and hurdles that have confronted my team and I over the course of the last couple of weeks, but it's pretty confidential (and that is as exciting as it will ever sound). In my foggy youth of more than a year ago, I was more than happy, nay, excited, to dive wholeheartedly into the machinations and workings of the great World Bank steamroller. Increasingly, I am realizing the full extent to which bureaucracy can stifle an important organizational mission.

At the same time, it is truly the heart of the development world. Almost all of the "old era" development institutions (you know, the acronym alphabet soup: ADB, IDB, DFID, EBRD, AfDB, USAID...) are hung with an enormous bureaucracy whose legacy seems for the most part inerasable. If I'm going to be stuck with bureaucracy, why not be stuck with the best, right?