No matter whose behavior you are trying to understand: your potential boyfriend, portfolio company board of directors, or an government official, there is an easy way to find out what he is essentially doing and where he intends to be headed.
All you have to do is to look at what the analyzed is spending the available funds on.
There are only a few alternatives to spend spare money:
— internal or external investment;
— repayment of debts, reduction of obligations and other liabilities;
— show off and other image shopping (where is a poor product, there is an expensive PR);
— when there are no ideas, everything is set under the mattress or dividends are paid.
In fact, as a person, board of directors, or bureaucrat, they use these alternatives and show what they do, what their priorities are, and what it is useful to build relationships with them.