Heroes in Business - Sir Ronald Cohen, Father of British Venture Capital, Cofounder, Exec. Chairman Apax Partners Worldwide LLP, Author Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

The Father of British Venture Capital, making an Impact. Sir Ronald Cohen is interviewed by David Cogan founder of Eliances and host of the Eliances Heroes show broadcast on am and fm network channels, internet radio, and online syndication.  www.eliances.com www.impactrevolution.com 

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. Well, welcome back. I'm so excited again. We've got an incredible lineup continuing today. And thank you again, too, for the continuing feedback we get. So keep it coming. From when I interviewed the, are you ready for this? The President of the United Nations General Assembly. So make sure you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com.

Because as you know, it's the only place where entrepreneurs align. I'm very excited about our next interview. We have with us Ronnie Cohn. He is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Apex Partners Worldwide. He's known as the father of venture capital in the UK and now author of Impact, UK, and now author of Impact, Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change. Welcome to the show, Ronnie. Great pleasure to be with you, David. So you have the most amazing career background. I mean, it would take days to go through everything, and I'm just so excited.

So we're going to do some of the highlights. You're a philanthropist. You're a venture capitalist, private equity investor, social innovator. I mean, you have more titles than almost anyone I know. And you've done so much in your life. I got to really just boil it down to one question. How? How have you done so much in so many different areas that would take others multiple lifetimes? David, that's a great question.

You know, there's a wonderful poet called Machado, a Spanish poet. He says there is no path. The path is made by walking. is made by walking. And I made my way through life looking for the next opportunity to do good and to do well. And it brought me to venture capital. And then I realized venture capital wasn't really closing the gaps in society as I'd hoped. And so I got into this whole field of impact. And talk to us about what does social impact mean? So impact involves doing good and doing well, putting it simply. It involves finding ways of balancing risk return and the effects that we have on people and planet and doing this in business and in investment. So that the traditional idea that you make a ton of money and then you become a philanthropist by giving it away gives way to actually building your business and achieving measurable improvement in people's lives and the environment at the same time.

How did you learn all this? Who was your mentor? I mean, where did all this come from? So you could say I taught myself because I was one of the first entrants into the field. About 20 years ago, the UK government asked me to look at poverty. Why aren't we making more progress in dealing with poverty? And I realized that the reason is that we're dealing with poverty by giving money as philanthropists or government spending money. We've never been able to bring investment to those who want to improve lives on the planet. And that set me on a path that has, you know, been trodden now for 20 years. So your book now that you are the author of, Impact, Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change,

which by the way, listeners and viewers, make sure you go to impactrevolution.com, impactrevolution.com. And of course, we'll have it on our website, alliances.com. What do you hope that the readers will gain from it? I think if you're a consumer, I hope you will stop buying only the products of companies that share your values. If you're an employee, you'll only work for these companies. If you're an investor, you'll invest in companies that do good at the same time as they do well. If you're working for government, then you'll convince government to look at the outcomes it creates rather than the money it spends. This impact revolution is something that every one of us has a role

to play. I'd like you to share, because again, you've done an incredible amount, some of the highlights of your career, and then also as a follow-up to that of what you hope others can do in the world and make an impact like you if there was one or two things that they can do now. Yeah. So venture capital is where I started in my mid-20s. So let me take an example out of the venture capital world just to explain what I mean that we can do. So here I'm speaking to you from Tel Aviv here in Israel. There's a fantastic impact venture designed to help the blind.

It's called OrCam. It created a pair of spectacles that whispers into the ear of the wearer the page of the book they're holding or the banknote in that hand. Fantastic way to help 35 million blind people in the world and 250 million visually impaired people. And it's a great venture. It's raised $100 million. The last round was at the $600 million valuation. Now, David, if you think as an impact entrepreneur, you ask yourself the question,

how could this technology help the greatest number of people on the planet? And you get a surprising answer. I think you'll agree, which is what if you provided these spectacles to the 800 million illiterate people in the world? What would that do for their lives and for their economies? So when you think in terms of impact, a bit like Elon Musk entering the automobile industry. You're thinking not just about making money, but how to improve the world. And believe me, as an experienced investor, it gives you an even greater opportunity to make money. Yeah, that's incredible. And again, we're talking with Ronnie Cohn, co-founder and former executive chairman of Apex Partners

Worldwide, father of venture capital in the UK. Make sure you get his book. He is the author of Impact, Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change. You can reach him at impactrevolution.com. Yeah, I mean, what an impact. Now, we're in your office right now, and I want to do some snooping around. Can you tell me what is one of the most memorable items that you have in your office? I see a number of books, pictures, and that. But if there was one thing that you were to grab, what would that be? So I have on these shelves some ancient pottery that goes back several thousand years to the area around Israel.

And for me it's a constant reminder that we are a link in a historical chain, that each of us has a purpose in life and that the aim of our lives is to improve the world that we're born into. Excellent. What do you see as far as with everything that's going on now within the world and the things that we're all experiencing? Unfortunately, everyone is experiencing right now what's going on. What do you see as the future? What does your crystal ball tell you? My crystal ball tells me we are on the threshold of another revolution like the tech revolution, David, and it's called the impact revolution.

There's already $30 trillion flowing to environmental, social, and governance investing, meaning that investors representing a third of all professionally managed money want to achieve impact as well as profit. Impact investment itself, which means measuring the impact as well as having the intention, is as big as venture capital today. It's a trillion dollars. And the next big frontier for society and for capitalism is to give transparency on the impact of companies like the transparency we have on their profit. And this is actually being done now. And within the next two or three years,

I think governments are going to mandate it. Companies will be publishing the impact they make on people and planet through their products, their organization, and their employment. And it's going to improve our lives and our system and our planet. Our system will shift from creating problems, which we rely on governments to tax us to try to remedy them,

to companies, entrepreneurs and investors helping to bring solutions to the big social challenges we face, diversity, inequality and to the environmental challenges we pose for our planet. This is amazing. Amazing, amazing. Again, excellent advice. We've got time only for one more question here, and I think it's very important because, as they say, the youth is the future, and that we have many parents that are listening now and they want to raise children that, you know, make an impact and impact in their own life, impact in others. Right. We keep going back to I love the title again of your book of impact.

What are some secrets maybe you could share with them of what they can do now to raise children to make an impact? Your children, if they are teenagers today, are showing you the way. They don't want to work in companies that just think about making money. They don't see the meaning of their lives as just making as much money as possible. They understand that we need to make a contribution, each of us, to improving the lives of those around us and to improving our planet. So I would urge you, if your children talk about that around the dinner table, listen, don't dismiss it. It's the future.

If they want to be entrepreneurs, being an impact entrepreneur is the way they're going to be most successful. If they want to work for a company, let them work for a company that has a mission, a purpose, as well as aiming to make money. Well, that's right. Make an impact, be an impact entrepreneur.

You heard it from Ronnie Cohn, co-founder and executive chairman of Apex Partners Worldwide. Make sure that you get his book, Impact, Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change, Impact Revolution. Fantastic, Ronnie. Thank you so much again. Make sure you continue to go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-S dot com. Continue to stay tuned for more. Thank you very much, David. Bye-bye.