Business

During the crisis and immediately thereafter the focus was less on infrastructure and more on, 'I need to find a manager, any manager, who can make some damn money!'

After Amaranth, I think to a significant extent, the business side became more important and of greater focus for institutional investors than the investment side.

I think transparency in this sense is a red-herring. A multi-strategy hedge fund could give an investor or the SEC it's daily trade blotter and accomplish 'transparency,' and the recipient would have no idea what to make of the trades.

Hedge funds don't have that asymmetric risk profile problem because, in general, the interests of the hedge fund managers are aligned with their investors. I think only people who are pandering to perceived public passions are blaming hedge funds for the financial crisis.

I personally think that it's only the ignorant and populism pandering politicians who treat the hedge fund industry as a scapegoat for the financial crisis. It was the extremely heavily regulated investment banks who, risking their shareholders' money, levered their firms up to 40:1!

Early stage investing is very difficult and financially risky meaning that a lot of what we invest in won't work. A lot of what we do is, in effect, pilots to see if individual projects or funds can generate some positive return.

The social sector offers this middle-ground where you've got organisations that have a social purpose. They care about the level of service in a real way, but also have the financial disciplines of a for-profit company as they must be sustainable.

Impact investing starts from the other end. It starts with an issue… this could be a problem, a social issue or so on. Impact investors start with an issue and then try to build a viable, sustainable financial model around that.

Brands create demand and, most importantly, they create secure demand. If you have a loyal customer, that gives you more security of income, earnings and employment.

Leading brand strategist and founding partner of Interbrand

For businesses to survive, let alone brands, you need a secure and stable base. You need secure economic and social conditions to reduce risk.

Leading brand strategist and founding partner of Interbrand

The starting point is to realise that brand, in whatever type of organisation, is the most important and sustainable asset you've got. People may leave or die, buildings may dilapidate or fall down, products and services may become obsolete… The thing that lives on is brand.

Leading brand strategist and founding partner of Interbrand

I think it's about usefulness! People talk of 'following your passion' but there are plenty of things people are passionate about that nobody will pay them money for, so you can't just tell someone to just follow their passion. The missing piece? usefulness… We say the magic formula is: Passion + Usefulness = Success.

Author of "The $100 Startup" and lifestyle design expert

Entrepreneurs have to focus on how a business makes money and focus on that rather than the expense side of the business. That also allows you to start quicker and instead of deferring your idea, you could get to market in 30 days.

Author of "The $100 Startup" and lifestyle design expert

If you asked most people to categorise good trades and bad trades, you would find the answers to be quite simple… If it makes money it's a good trade, and if it loses money, it's a bad trade. That's not true at all…

Author of Market Wizards & Hedge Fund Expert

If you take a trade that follows your process exactly and if that trade loses money, that was not a bad trade. It's only a bad trade if you deviate from your process and lose money. I would go further and say that if you deviate from your process and make money, it's still a bad trade.

Author of Market Wizards & Hedge Fund Expert

This is a great analogy as the key to successful trading really is the space between trades! It's not just a matter of making the right trades… but also not doing anything when things aren't right.

Author of Market Wizards & Hedge Fund Expert