Business model religion

If you're reading this, you will probably have a veritable warehouse of expensively acquired models, schematics, heuristics and other tools that you can bring to bear on a challenge. 

I can sometimes sense my own mental "stock picker" working like an over-caffeinated Amazon warehouse worker hurtling round with their trolley to bring them to my attention before I have had time to work out the real problem.  Intellectual paracetamol that eases the pain but bypasses the cause.

In business, most of those models are grounded in the pursuit of efficiency, speed and are characterised by notions like Warren Buffet's "circle of competence." They have brought real financial returns to those who follow his principles - but at a price.

"What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word "selected": You don't have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of tha…