Leadership
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Chapter 1 Characteristics of Successful Asset Management Firms 1
You Can Take the Boy Out of the Culture, but You Can’t Take the Culture Out of the Boy 3
Size Matters, but Not in the Way Most People Believe 7
Governance: The Guardian of an Investment-Driven Firm 12
Fostering Collaborative Freedom: Everybody is a Peer 19
Integrity: An Unquestionable Characteristic of Success 23
Conclusion 25
Chapter 2 Building a Cathedral: A Framework for Turning the Mission into Collective Action 27
A Framework for Effective Leadership and Management 28
Establishing and Living Organizational Values 29
Creating Mission and/or Investment Philosophy Statements 31
Strategic Goals and Key Performance Indicators 33
Conclusion 37
Chapter 3 Building a Meritocracy: Understanding, Evaluating, and Rewarding Employee Contributions 39
Performance: A Deeper Dive 39
Horizon: The Fallacy of the Three-Year Track Record 40
Performance Analysis: Practically Speaking 45
Top-down and Bottom-up Approach to Determining Performance 48
Designing Your Rating System to Help Make the Difficult Decisions 51
What Does the Performance Score Really Mean? 53
Criticality: A Deeper Dive 53
Merit Zones: Putting It All Together 57
Communication of Performance and Criticality 59
Values and Compensation 64
Conclusion 67
Chapter 4 Investment Philosophy and Process: A Lofty Cathedral Needs a Deep Foundation 69
The Importance of Investment Philosophy and Process in Investment Organizations 69
Investment Philosophy: Core Beliefs 70
Investment Process: Control and Anarchy 73
Avoiding the Pitfalls of Behavioral Biases 78
Conclusion 83
Chapter 5 Investment Process in an Evolving World 85
Implementation Overview: The “How” of the Investment Process 86
Fundamental Valuation 88
Market Behavior and How It Challenges the Fundamental Investor 90
Team Behavior: Lessons for the CIO from Jelly Beans and Freud 118
Portfolio Design 127
Conclusion 129
Chapter 6 Communication for Superior Client Outcomes 131
The Problem: Human Nature 133
A Classic Tale 134
Case 1: Individual Investors, the Impact of Performance Chasing 137
Case 2: Are Institutional Investors the “Smart Money?” 137
The Reality of Investing in Equities 139
The Mathematics of Recovery 142
Dilemma: Investment Firm or Distribution Shop? 143
The Importance of Culture 145
Sales and Marketing in an Investment Firm 146
Conclusion 149
Appendix: Client Communication in Extreme Market Conditions 149
Chapter 7 Where are the Clients’ Yachts?: Reasonable Fee Structures 159
The “Gamma Trade” 161
Anatomy of a Blowup 167
Catch 22 168
Faults of Existing Fee Structures 170
Our Recommendation: High Integrity Fee Structures 178
Conclusion 186
Chapter 8 Final Thoughts 187
Characteristics of Great Asset Management Firms 188
It Starts with a Shared Mission and Values 188
True Meritocracy 189
Avoiding the Pitfalls 190
For Successful Client Outcomes: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate 192
It’s All about Incentives 193
Integrity 193
Notes 195
Bibliography 201
About the Authors 205
Index 207
