Community Engagement and Hands-On Research in Business | 3min snip from Capital Ideas Investing Podcast

Speaker 1
So
Speaker 2
in the CAP program today, 20 plus years later from when you were doing it, is that sentiment around community and nonprofit participation, does that still exist in the program today? It
Speaker 1
is still in the program, indeed.
Speaker 2
It is a good reason to join any company is the culture. And clearly, nonprofits and community are part of our culture. So it got you here 23 years ago. I'm glad that was added to the program then. And it
Speaker 1
is... I've been involved in the Capital Contribution Committee ever since. And last year we donated $50 million to more than 5,000 organizations. So that makes me really proud.
Speaker 2
That should. I think the total number of Capital Cares donations globally over the last decade is about $350 million. So, great. Let's get into, you said you like to do research. And when you say you like to do research, you mean it. Folks do research in different ways. You like to get your hands dirty. And I have a picture here for you. When I say your hands dirty, I mean like really dirty. So, for those listeners, we have a picture of Lara at Tesco. And there are two different parts of her work there. One is as a fishmonger, and you have a big old fish in your hands there. And the other is pushing a cart full of different boxes, and it looks like you're in the fresh food aisle. So why were you there? What were you doing? When was this? Give us some perspective of this primary research that you were doing.
Speaker 1
As you can see, I really love to get my hands dirty. And my first industry review was about European food retailers. So it's a very tangible sector. And everyone was telling me, Lara, find your edge. Think outside of the box. And so I thought, hmm, maybe I can do something that is a little bit different. And, you know, it was a given that I had to read the annual reports and that I had to know the financials of the company, but the rest was left up to me. And so I thought, you know what, I'm going to ask if I can work in the stores and use my languages. And so I asked, and at first the companies were a little bit puzzled because no one had asked that before. But then they realized that, you know, at Capital, we have a very long-term investment approach. And so I didn't want to do it to get an edge on the next quarterly results. I was really there to understand the style of management, the culture of the companies, to understand a little bit more about the business model and the jargon. And so I, yes, I did it first with Tesco. Very grateful for that in UK. And then I did it in France and in Germany, which were the main markets that I was.

Research to runway: Investing in disruptive business models

Capital Ideas Investing Podcast

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts