Why Intel Wants to Sell a Big Part of its Venture Capital Portfolio

I write today in praise of focus.

One of the biggest enemies of any career, project, strategy, what have you, is a lack of focus. Apple (AAPL) under Steve Jobs was the epitome of focus. The company did only a few things at a time, said no to more things than it said yes to (current CEO Tim Cook frequently references this dictum), and even tried mightily to restrict what individual employees focused on. It looked for specialists not generalists and often reminded its people to mind their own business.

Focus is particularly important in the investment world. Investors typically set out with a thesis. An example might be to invest only in companies with fewer than 25 employees an hour’s flight from San Francisco engaged in enterprise software. Swimming outside such pre-established lanes is called “mission creep.”

I explain all this to highlight an extraordinary document out of Intel Capital, the venture investing arm of the chip giant, and some insightful reporting from Fortune’s Dan Primack. After Bloomberg reported that Intel Capital was selling some of its investments, Primack sharpened his pencil and learned a few details about Intel’s plan. He reported that Intel (INTC) intends to sell as much as possible in its portfolio that doesn’t fit with CEO Brian Krzanich’s strategic priorities and that it hopes to sell the investments in one transaction. This means, Primack explained, that some beauties will be available simply because they don’t fit for Intel.

Intel more or less confirmed all this in a lovely piece of corporatese-laden prose, which Primack surfaced. It’s a fine example of an organization prioritizing focus over financial opportunity, the theory being that the former will lead to even more of the latter.

You might try applying this in your business life. I know I try every day.