The Nature of Investing by Katherine Collins… a Review

Jay OwenBooks and Reviews

“Thanks to colleague Ben Bingham for this review of the new book The Nature of Investing from Ethical Markets Advisory Board member Katherine Collins, Honeybee Capital.”  ~Editor

The Nature of Investing by Katherine Collins… a Review

You might ask why a very successful professional at the top of her game might leave the comfort and prestige of a hard-won executive role leading the largest research team in the world to go on a pilgrimage, build houses in 20 remote countries for Habitat for Humanity all while roping in a degree from the Harvard Divinity School! You might wonder further: how in the world did she re-orientate her approach to her vocation, which is investing, from the dark pool of massively efficient number crunching to a more effective and rewarding approach based on lessons learned from Nature! Did she lose her mind? Hardly. The key to Katherine Collins’ new world was arrived at just because she is a grand and artistic thinker who thinks things through to very important, conclusions…conclusions which shake the foundations of the financial world as we have known it. What this book uncovers in a gently humorous and loving way is that the financial world has lost its orientation to what is real.

This book is a pleasure to read because each section begins with interesting anecdotes from nature as metaphors or new models for effective investment. For example, the fact that we expect companies to grow and grow without spending on research and development is contrasted with the spurting growth of a sunflower which needs an equal rooting below the surface in order to stand tall and follow the sun. This invisible development below the ground is an image for the inner development that like “secret sauce” feeds the best companies in sustainable growth.

 

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