Wisdom in fragments

We manage risk by lending into the value-chain where we are able to leverage the non-financial-assets of the corporation that's buying from these communities and agricultural businesses. By having off-take agreements, we have guaranteed demand for the underlying product and, therefore, bankable cash-flows.

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We are unapologetically at the high-risk, low-return sweet-spot of agricultural finance. We choose to address geographies and sectors where there are real market failures or at least deep market imperfections.

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If you look for the next Steve Jobs or Richard Branson in developing economies, however, their businesses rarely make it out of the garage as they are missing three critical factors. They lack financial capital, qualified employees plus the knowledge and access to financial markets- those three things stop those businesses enjoying the kinds of prosperity we do in the northern hemisphere.

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We're working at the nexus of two pretty powerful forces which, when combined, can have a profound impact on reducing global poverty. First, agriculture.... You've got around 2.6 billion people in the world who survive on less than $2 per day, 75% of them are rural and agriculture is their primary economic activity.

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They are opening seventeen distribution centres. I've never seen a company open more than two or three at a time and this company is opening seventeen! The valuation is very stretched, but the business advantages are, in my opinion, mind-boggling.

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I've been doing this a long time and have very rarely seen a company with sustainable competitive advantage like Amazon has. They have a very low cost of capital, they are very efficient, and the government provide an additional advantage in that the transactions are not tax.

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For the iPad it's game over in terms of market-share… Apple has won! It's a preposterously cheap stock… The applications for the iPhone and the iPad are just growing every day. I think these things are going to be ubiquitous…

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I think Apple is preposterously undervalued. Apple has this mind-boggling margin structure, phenomenal consumer brand, and is accumulating mountains of cash. I joked on television that they should lever up and buy Greece! They have something like 7x cash-flow.

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I think Groupon was preposterously overpriced, and Zynga was moderately overpriced. The principal problem with Groupon, in my opinion, is that they have a bad business model. It basically eats by selling their customers crack cocaine- telling them to cut their prices 50% for a selected number of people. If you do that enough? You wont have a business.

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My big contention is that we've misread Adam Smith. People don't realise that Adam Smith was a moral philosopher before an economics expert. His first book, before he wrote 'The Wealth of Nations' was, 'The Theory on Moral Sentiments'. In that book, you find the answer for what the invisible hand really is! He never accelerated the narrative that there should be completely unfettered free markets. He believed markets took place in the context of a moral framework and foundation.

I've worked with many entrepreneurs and billionaires and I see the same trend over and over again. What they want is someone to manage the liquid side of their portfolio, and they want to take a huge chunk out and use it as their risk capital on things they know and can control. The money didn't just drop-in… it arrived through creation and building! These individuals are always going to be about growth….

The Chinese government has realised that to fuel capitalism, an atheistic, communistic, civil-religion will never propel growth. They weren't doing because they thought it was 'true' but because they were astute in knowing that you need this kind-of cultural base. Recently the Chinese government have done a major funding push for Buddhist centres and institutes around the world. They are trying to replace one philosophical narrative with another… They realise that their system, frankly, will not support the growth or creativity to create the new technologies and companies that are necessary.

If you look historically at the historical contours of wealth- it's primarily created through private ownership. That's always been the case- and I believe it always be. Having said that…. the lines begin to get blurred when you start to look at places like Latin America and Mexico where the state-owned enterprises are dominated by individuals- like a Carlos Slim, for example…. or if you look at state-owned assets being privatised in a place like Russia where former KGB agents are now industrial capitalists.

There was some fascinating research in Judaism which showed that as an individual moved from being orthodox, to conservative and eventually liberal.. there was a steep rise in the prevalence of drug use and drunkenness in society. It's not because the Jewish faith, at an orthodox level, derides drugs or drinking- but more that it derides letting yourself down publically.

Pioneering addiction medicine researcher and founder of addiction studies field

In 19th century England, there was no law against opium use until something like the 1890's. It was freely available, people didn't talk about addiction but rather about 'bad use of opium'... Charles Dickens used to use it extensively! It wasn't always banned!

Pioneering addiction medicine researcher and founder of addiction studies field

The evidence is that 50% of young heroin users who are under 19 will die by the age of 50. It's a terrible danger. People with alcohol problems have got a full 400% increase in expectation of death, than people without alcohol problems.

Pioneering addiction medicine researcher and founder of addiction studies field