The Wine Maker and the Investment Bank – Lessons from Long-term Success

The first time I discovered a company that defied conventional business wisdom, it wasn’t a flashy tech startup or a corporate giant — it was a family-owned wine maker in rural Australia. At the time I was working at a Big 4 accounting firm and they were my client during the heady days prior to the Global Financial Crisis. While other companies chased aggressive growth fuelled by debt, the wine maker quietly thrived. It reinvested profits, maintained a strong cash buffer, and remained steadfastly independent without relying on banks and investors. That discovery reshaped my thinking. What if the strongest, most enduring companies weren’t the ones following conventional playbooks?

As I delved deeper, the discovery set me on a path to uncover the traits of truly great long-term performers — why some thrive for generations while others decay with size.

It all came down to mentality.

The Difference in Mindset 

As was the case with the wine maker, as you might expect, having the family name inscribed in the company brand instils a deep sense of pride, but more importantly, a level of responsibility to safeguard its reputation for future generations. The company was committed to protecting this legacy at all costs, often choosing to launch new subsidiary brands for international markets to avoid any confusion with its established domestic identity. Decisions on new ventures were approached with a long-term perspective, measured over decades, rather than the usual three-to-five-year horizon common in most corporations. This approach also explained why the company was so cautious with the use of external capital — its financial foundations were to be strengthened over time, not diluted with lenders and more shareholders. This allowed the company to acquire competitors during industry downturns, as it remained financially strong when others had over-leveraged. The sustained success this winemaker achieved and the style of business it ran attracted me. I began to seek out more companies like this to observe. But as I was to learn in the next phase of my career, such companies were quite rare.

The Struggle to Find Companies with a Founder-Led Philosophy 

Every now and then I would encounter a company with a similar philosophy but, unless I sought them out deliberately, it was very unlikely one would come across my desk fortuitously. By then I knew the characteristics of these founder-led companies and I could find them in the public markets. What I realised was that I could learn just as much from these founder-led companies as from their counterparts — the non-founder-led companies, where the bureaucratic disease had taken hold and a myopic quarterly focus had become entrenched.

The Bureaucratic Disease: A Contrast in Corporate Cultures 

There was no better way to contrast these opposing styles than by comparing them with the very organisations I worked for. Instead of a long-term focus on brand building and generating sustainable revenue streams, the multinational investment banks I represented were tied down by their own bureaucratic processes and internal infighting, which handcuffed their ability to adapt quickly to market needs. Instead of a company motivated and aligned with its shareholders, I observed investment bankers engaged in lobbying to secure the highest possible annual bonus they could by redesigning key performance indicators (KPIs) and shifting their targets with clever, well-reasoned presentations. It was an annual dance that would occur in the months leading up to bonus season. So ingrained was this culture of the annual bonus that executive management teams were themselves part of this annual dance.

Transactional Incentives vs. Sustainable Growth 

The value of an investment banker to the global management team was measured by their ability to meet short-term targets — typically set within a three-to-five-year timeframe, with progress reviewed annually. The frequent turnover of staff eroded any sense of loyalty or commitment to the business’s long-term growth. Instead of functioning as a cohesive team, we became more like mercenaries, assembled to complete the next task, and nothing more. Our attention was squarely focused on personal bonuses, and the game became a test of our ability to demonstrate individual contributions to the annual budget targets. What makes the experience of an investment bank interesting is that the sheer brainpower within the team was undisputable. The capability and work ethic were not in contention. But in comparison to the founder-led companies I had observed earlier in my career, our motivations were not aligned with the long-term interests of our shareholders. Because of the way the incentives were structured and the culture within investment banking, the focus of decision-making worked only on short time horizons. There was no sense of delayed gratification — almost everything we did was to generate income for the current year or to deliver on the three-year management plan.

Learning from the Contrast: Aligning Motivations for Long-Term Success 

Investment banking is inherently transactional, with less emphasis on cultivating long-term relationships with suppliers and customers, unlike founder-led companies. As a result, these banks tend not to build on their brand’s foundations but instead rely on cyclical rather than organic growth. Their expansion typically comes through transactions and acquisitions of other banks, or increased growth from the next wave of market activity.

What I learned in my time in investment banking was the importance of alignment and incentives. Humans have an innate desire to achieve, but these ambitions can be distorted if the incentive structure is incorrectly applied and the time horizon excessively compressed. Although the approach in the investment banking world was in stark contrast to what I observed with the wine maker earlier in my career, it was invaluable to compare the two and see how meaningful behaviours propelled by the right motivations are key to the long-term destiny of a company.

Edited extract from The Founder Effect (Wiley) by Lawrence Lam, which explores the essential traits of successful executive teams and governance structures that drive sustainable growth.
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