Don’t Vote
Someone the other day asked me about Permanent Equity’s Investment Committee. Specifically, who was on it, how often it met, what it reviewed, and whether the threshold for approval was a majority or unanimity and if anyone could ever exercise veto power?
I responded that Permanent Equity doesn’t have an Investment Committee. Rather, we strive to do what makes sense 100% of the time and what doesn’t 0% – though I know we don’t always. Our process for this is collaborative. If we disagree, we don’t vote; we talk it through. And we bring into that discussion anyone who might offer a relevant and valuable point of view. Because voting would end a conversation that probably needs to keep going.
Our experience is that if you have a tightly-knit team that trusts one another and is aligned around getting the best outcome for the organization, merit and reasoning mostly carry the day. There have been plenty of times where our CEO Brent and I have started out on opposite sides of what we thought was the right course of action. When that happens, sometimes we end up doing what I thought we should do, sometimes what he thought, sometimes we meet somewhere in the middle, and sometimes we both realize that someone else’s point of view is better than either of ours. This isn’t Amazon-style “disagree and commit,” but something more akin to “persuade, support, and update your priors.”
That same person then asked me about our ESG practices and whether or not we were a UN PRI signatory? I honestly didn’t know what that latter thing was so had to google it, and no, we’re not. But I don’t think that means we’re not good people.
In fact, I’ve long struggled to understand why you have to pledge to do something instead of just actually doing it. Cynically, I think that if you make a show of saying that you do or don’t do something, the odds increase that you’re not actually doing it.
Anyway, as for ESG, we don’t have a formal program there either (though Brent now has an electric car too), but what I said in response is that by having 30-year funds, we’re naturally predisposed to think a lot about sustainability. After all, if we have no water, customers, or employees in 30 years and everyone hates us, we’ve probably lost.
– Tim
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