Lettres d'investissement

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• As active investors, Comgest believes there is no substitute for on-the-ground research.
• Drawing upon four decades of investment experience, we have found that one of the clearest ways to identify quality growth companies is to visit their offices and speak directly with management, suppliers, clients and employees.
• While Comgest remains a boutique, our investment team is spread around the world.
• Close collaboration between our Paris headquarters and local offices fosters open debate and shared decisions so that nothing is overlooked in our research.

LEAVING THE CAVE

Plato's allegory of the cave, described in his seminal work The Republic, offers a warning about how effortlessly perception can be mistaken for reality. Socrates asks us to imagine a group of people trapped inside a darkened cave since childhood.

Chained by their necks and feet, the prisoners can only stare forward at the wall in front of them. Above them, a burning fire casts shadows on the wall. Silhouettes of animals, plants and humans from the outside world above dance along the wall. Having known nothing else in their lives, the prisoners accept these shadows as reality.

What would happen if the shackles came off and the prisoners were allowed to leave the cave? Socrates tells us that they would first be blinded by the sun, then gradually come to see the reality of what used to be shadows. He asks, "Don't you think they would be baffled? That the shadows they formerly saw were truer than the objects that are now being pointed out to them?"

Find out more