Yes, Prime Minister

Bo Ilsoe
4 min readOct 26, 2019

“Yes Minister” was political satire — a British sitcom that aired over three seven-episode series from 1980 to 1984. It evolved into a sequel called “Yes, Prime Minister” that ran for 16 episodes between 1986 and 1988. They were, and still are hilariously funny in a way that only the British can make them.

Should the same show be made today, it would be considered completely outrageous, especially if you think about making a satire out of what has already descended into the beyond-belief mud pit of the so-called “Brexit.” In fact, the BBC series was so prescient that it even delivered this very eloquent explanation for Brexit, calling it a “pigs breakfast”.

“Yes, Prime Minister” pitted the politically elected minister against the senior civil servant staff, whose main role was to obfuscate and complicate as much as possible any new initiatives, ideas, or, god forbid, changes to the way things were run. So, a typical exchange would go something like this:

Minister: “Can you just give me a straight answer to a straight question?”

Senior staff: “As long as you do not stick to crude generalisations or vulgar simplifications such as ‘yes’ or ‘no’, I will.”

Clarity was not something that ministerial staffers appreciated.

The “Yes, Prime Minister” sitcom maybe more relevant to us than ever — for sure, it is relevant to the team at NGP Capital. Last week, we announced that Esko Aho, ex-Prime Minister of Finland, had accepted an invitation to join us as an advisor. Esko is a wonderful, energetic, and hugely experienced man, with a Rolodex that literally spans the world — China, Korea, Europe, the US, and elsewhere. He has had an impressive career, becoming PM of Finland at the tender age of 36, and leading Finland into the EU in the early 90s. Since then, he has held many positions in business and has taught students at some of the most prestigious universities in the world. Now, you may ask, what will he do with us at NGP Capital?

As we are challenging entrepreneurs and leaders to hire people better than themselves, we are also trying to push our own way of working. We, as an investment firm, need to change. We need to move with the markets. Venture capital is institutionalizing. The market has changed massively. Think about China — in the span of less than 10 years, it has grown to be as large as the US in terms of venture investing. In France, the preferred occupation for students has switched from banking and consulting to entrepreneurship.

The Japanese company, Softbank, entered with a $100B investment vehicle. Given the market upheaval, driven by zero interest rates and an ever more dominant technology sector, how do we position NGP Capital for the future without losing sight of our core values and our strengths as a company? One of the ways we can do that is by bringing people like Esko into our inner circle. He will push our thinking. He will help us look at the world differently. He will be able to open doors we otherwise would never have known even existed. He will challenge us to think bigger. We certainly hope that the next 12 months will feel and be very different from today, based on Esko’s contributions.

“Technology is and will be the fundamental reason why our societies look like they do.”

What’s in this for Esko? And I don’t mean this in a cynical transactional way, but rather, what will Esko be exposed to that he wasn’t before? Some of the answers you can find in the interview we published here.

If you read it, you will understand that Esko sees technology as THE fundamental shaper of our future. As he says: “Technology is and will be the fundamental reason why our societies look like they do.” And Esko is not somebody who is afraid of taking a different tack, or challenging conventions, for instance by accepting a board seat with Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia and the third-largest in Europe, with $40B in revenue and $465B in assets. This type of thing is Esko’s way of “building bridges, not walls.” For the non-Finnish readers, there is a 1,340 km common border between Finland and Russia. So, the EU-Russia relationship is never “theoretical” for Finland. It is a very real, everyday political and security reality. Dialogue, even with the most controversial adversaries, is a necessity in Esko’s view.

Not only geopolitics, but sustainability, the aging population, and globalisation are topics at the top of Esko’s mind. He also emphasizes playing the long game: “Patience is one of the factors that explains economic growth. It’s alarming that we discuss patience so little nowadays. In politics, we tend to think only in terms of the next election. In business, companies have difficulty investing in anything that doesn’t provide short-term profit.” In our businesses, we are bombarded every day with a torrent of news, opinions, tweets, blogs, deals, analysis, or whatever. Discerning the signal from the noise and having faith in our strategy for the long haul is tough. Listening to Esko certainly will keep us alert to working with the end goal in mind.

Will we at NGP Capital descend into obfuscation and complication, as did the civil servants in the BBC series? I certainly hope not. And I am sure Esko will keep us honest.

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Bo Ilsoe
Bo Ilsoe

Written by Bo Ilsoe

Partner at NGP Capital. Raised in Europe. Shaped around the globe. Sharing my learnings through Notes to CEO's.

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