Visions, Success factors and Culture

The Vision

  1. Compound wealth long-term for shareholders
  2. Target the inefficient, small-cap UK market with significant specialist experience
  3. Deliver 15% IRR investments over the long-term
  4. Be a 100% focused fund manager accessing the Harwood network
  5. Enable shareholders to benefit from a closed-end structure

Our foundations for long-term success:

  1. A ‘value’ investing approach with an ‘ownership’ mentality, a desire to buy at a significant discount to intrinsic worth, establishing a ‘margin of safety’ (Graham)
  2. ‘Long term Capital’
  3. Patience
  4. ‘Skin in the game’ (Taleb)
  5. Low overheads and a simple organisation structure
  6. Tax efficiency
  7. Clear, honest communications, externally and internally
  8. The premium captured for illiquidity
  9. Financial strength through the cycle
  10. Experience and complementary capabilities of the team

Our desired culture at Rockwood Strategic

  1. Strong integrity – doing what we say
  2. Intellectual honesty – accepting when we are wrong
  3. Behavioural and psychological bias awareness – mutual respect and discussion
  4. Focused – our efforts and our portfolio
  5. Influence seekers – embracing active engagement
  6. Individual responsibility – within a collectively shared purpose
  7. Passionate about investment and on-going knowledge accumulation
  8. Nimble organisation and investment decision making (as necessary)
  9. Believe and invest in networks and partnerships
  10. Smart due diligence, not ‘box-ticking’

It’s a very simple set of ideas and the reason our ideas have not spread faster is they’re too simple. The professional classes can’t justify their existence if that’s all they have to say”

Munger, BBC interview 2009