Insight
Moyo: Board interviews should test for black swan resilience, not past returns.
“Anybody who is going to be in front of me as a board member is qualified. I don't need them to necessarily relate to me how they built a team or generated returns. The fact that they're there tells me that they've done that. What I'm interested in is how do th…”
Insight
Moyo: No country in history achieved economic success without cheap energy.
“That's where I bring in my more fundamental view that no country ever in history has achieved economic success without having cheap energy.”
Opinion
Moyo: First super cycle in 40 years driven by AI, energy transition.
“It seems to me this is the first time from an economic lens we've had a super cycle in 40 years. We had women coming into the workforce and brought new consumers in the 19 forties and fifties. Then we had the fall of the wall in 1989. It brought in the globali…”
Opinion
Moyo: Emerging markets face a very high hurdle to beat U.S. returns.
“I now have come to the realization that it's a hard perch, high hurdle to leave the U.S., take my one marginal dollar and invest in country X in the emerging markets and expect a competitive risk-adjusted return.”
Opinion
Moyo: After 250 years, economists still don't know what drives growth.
“After 250 years of Adam Smith, I don't think anybody has an answer. We swing back from more Karl Marx, more Keynes, more Hayek, more Smith, but when it comes down to we don't know what creates economic growth.”
Assertion Supported
Moyo: China's Africa strategy is investment-driven, not aid-driven.
“Even more recently, the Chinese approach into Africa has not been an aid-driven approach. It's more of investment. Both of these models have their problems.”
Insight
Moyo: Serving on non-profit boards is much harder than for-profit boards.
“It's much harder being on the board of a not-for-profit Have they been in a situation where they're competing needs? Having to make the decision that one is of superior need to another in a constrained budget environment. These are all very important lessons.”
Opinion
Moyo: Public perception that corporations are evil is boards' biggest challenge.
“That would be my most vexing thing for every single business I've been in. Consumer, energy, banking, this increasing voice that companies are doing bad or are inherently evil is the big issue.”
Opinion
Moyo: Chevron's board is driven by IQ; Starbucks focuses on EQ.
“If Chevron is all IQ, Starbucks is largely EQ. The board is made up of people who were running Domino's Pizza, Nike. So understand the consumer in a much more innate level that permeates into how the companies run.”
Insight
Moyo: Board leaders stating opinions first fosters groupthink and governance failures.
“Too often, when people are in leadership roles, there's a risk that they lead with their opinion. Oh, I think we should do the deal. Now, does anybody else have any comment? Those are the places where companies end up with problems. Groupthink, the lead direct…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Moyo: AI will let LPs analyze portfolio J-curves without relying on GPs.
“The thing about AI, we're no longer going to rely on the GPs or our money managers to tell us how the J-curve is operating. I can now look through our own portfolio and see where that J-curve is.”
Assertion Partly supported
Moyo: The U.S. economy has grown to nearly twice Europe's size.
“The record, even just the past, since the financial crisis, United States and Europe were about the same size. The United States is now almost two times as big.”
Disclosure
Moyo: SpaceX venture valuation is completely delinked from historical PE averages.
“We are in SpaceX. From the venture exposure, you start to look at where these things are trading, completely delinked from 16 times PE average over the past decades or so. It's just hard to justify.”
Disclosure
Moyo: Altered Trajectory limits tech exposure to focus on core human needs.
“Concentration is a big risk that we manage actively. Not getting too carried away with tech, tech light, or tech adjacent. There's a lot of opportunity in what I would call bog standard elements of human existence. Food, pharmaceuticals, healthcare. Not gettin…”
Opinion
Moyo: Perpetual endowments have greater appetite for long-term China bets.
“They have more appetite and more willingness to take the longer China bet than we might because we're going to die at some point and somebody else is going to be responsible for the endowment.”
Insight
Moyo: New board directors must decode protagonist and plot mid-movie.
“Joining as a board member, you're coming in, in the middle of a movie. Your job is to quickly figure out who's the protagonist, who's the martyr, what's the plot.”
Disclosure
Moyo: Family office Altered Trajectory avoids bonds and leverage.
“We're more equity loving. We're not big on bonds. Anything that's on the leverage side is not exciting for us.”
Disclosure
Moyo: Family office Altered Trajectory slashed manager roster from 47 to 15.
“We went from 47 down to around 15.”
Disclosure
Moyo: Family office Altered Trajectory allocates 30% to 35% to tech venture.
“It skews quite heavily to tech, particularly in the venture part of the portfolio, probably around 30 to 35%.”
Assertion Supported
Moyo: UK electricity costs 40¢ per kWh versus 8¢ in China.
“Even for developed countries in other places where I always point to the UK, it's 40 cents a kilowatt hour is the energy price versus China where it's eight cents or the US where it's between 12 and 16 cents.”
Opinion
Moyo: 1970s television show Columbo centered on wealth and class inequality.
“All the scripts and all the episodes were basically tackling inequality because Columbo was this crumpled guy who complained about paying 50 cents for a cup of coffee. All the villains were wealthy, elite, connected political class.”
Baroness Dambisa Moyo