Many investors focus on the current size of a company's competitive advantage. A better indicator of future success is the direction of that moat—is it growing or shrinking? Focusing on the trajectory helps avoid value traps like Nokia in 2007, which had a wide but deteriorating moat.

Mala Gaonkar's firm gains an advantage by deeply analyzing the technology infrastructure of companies in traditional sectors like aerospace or finance. This reveals scalability and quality often overlooked by investors focused solely on the core business, treating every company as a technology company.

Alan Waxman uses the term "tunnel investing" to describe the danger of single-strategy funds. By focusing only on their niche, they miss systemic risks visible from a broader perspective. He cites seeing the 2008 housing crisis brewing as an example of how a multi-strategy view provides crucial early warnings that specialists miss.

Temasek evaluates global investments on two fronts: financial returns and the strategic insights they generate. This "network effect" allows them to transfer knowledge from one portfolio company to others, enhancing value across their entire ecosystem and justifying investments beyond pure financial metrics.

Gaonkar's painful experience shorting Nokia, which was acquired by Microsoft despite its decline, taught her a key lesson. An investment thesis must account for a company's strategic value to others, not just its isolated performance. This requires systemic, not siloed, thinking.

Most good investors succeed by recognizing patterns (e.g., "SaaS for X"). However, the truly exceptional investors analyze businesses from first principles, understanding their deep, fundamental merits. This allows them to spot outlier opportunities that don't fit any existing mold, which is where the greatest returns are found.

While many investors look for a competitive "moat," investor Mala Gaonkar's primary differentiator is identifying businesses with very long-duration moats. The key to finding truly great companies is assessing how long their competitive advantage can be sustained, not just that it exists today.

Gaonkar favors businesses with complex, "systemic" moats derived from deeply integrated processes, like TSMC's manufacturing expertise. She argues these are more durable than moats based on a single advantage, comparing it to owning the process of gold extraction rather than just owning the mine.

Investor Mala Gaonkar asserts that to deliver quality at scale, any business, whether in aerospace or medtech, must have a strong technology backbone. Her firm gains an edge by analyzing the "tech stack map" of companies, especially those not traditionally considered technology businesses.