Hallo Arman,
ich habe jetzt bei Value-Wissen einfach mal das Thema Management-Beurteilung eröffnet.
Die Texte von David Marino-Nachison kopiere ich einfach mal hier rein, vielleicht besteht ja mehr Interesse. Für unsere Zwecke habe ich dann das Wichtigste ins Deutsche einfach frei übersetzt.
Aber für jeden, der lieber das Original liest:
http://www.fool.com/index.htm?ref=Yo
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By Dave Marino-Nachison (TMF Braden)
August 7, 2001
As Jerry Seinfeld said so many times that he just about made a career of
it, "Who are these people?" As a part-owner, or prospective part-owner, of
a business, members of management are the folks to whom we entrust the
management of our money -- hopefully, for years. While it may not be as
monumental as handing over a child's hand in marriage, it's still pretty
darn important, and who would want to give that kind of responsibility to
a stranger?
With this in mind, an investor's first trip should be right to a company's
annual report and proxy statement -- known, in SEC-filing-ese, as the
"10-K" and "14-A," respectively -- for basic information. These should, at
the very least, include the name, title, recent history at the company,
and outside directorships, if any, as well as compensation information,
for a company's executive officers and board members.
Those reports may also hold information on an executive's employment
history before joining the company. If not, corporate media or investor
relations departments generally have prepared bios available, at least for
top managers. (They may even be posted online.) Some, but not all, may
even make resumes available to inquisitive investors.
Of course, bios and resumes are, in the end, marketing materials -- I, for
example, lied about my high school diploma to get hired here -- and
investors should, at the very least, consider a Web search using Google,
Northern Light, or a similar website, for more information from outside
sources.
News archives, such as that of CNet's News.com, and industry-specific news
sites and publications, may also be useful. The glossy business magazines
frequently run in-depth profiles of corporate managers: Forbes' website
has a "people search" and "tracker" to keep you abreast of news and
developments involving business' movers and shakers. And a visit to a few
corporate discussion boards to ask questions and collect impressions can't
hurt.
It's worthwhile to look beyond the chairman and CEO. Does your company
have a succession plan in place? Who would step in if the CEO's train ran
off the tracks? Is there, for lack of a better word, "depth" in the ranks?
OK, now what?
What do you do once you've gathered up all this biographical information?
And how much is enough? The answers to those questions are up to you, but
at the very least it's good to get a sense of managers' background with
their current company, employment, and educational history. You may find
out your CEO successfully pulled a company out of bankruptcy (not bad!,
or perhaps sent a dot-com into one (not so good).
Maybe they've only managed small companies and could be poorly prepared
for rapid growth. Maybe they've been in place for 35 years and are looking
forward to more golf next summer. Or perhaps they have a sterling track
record at every stop: Some money managers follow favorite managers
faithfully from company to company, trusting in their time-tested ability
to run companies effectively.
Conversely, you may uncover rampant job-hopping, past or current criminal
or fraudulent activities and entanglements, tussles with regulators for
bad accounting practices or aggressive revenue recognition policies, UFO
fixations, conflicts on the board of directors, or remarkable humanitarian
tendencies.
So does any of this translate into clear buy/sell/hold instructions?
Well, it might. The Rule Breaker team, for example, saw lots to like about
Belgian speech recognition technology company Lernout & Hauspie but
eventually passed on it as an investment because of questions about the
background of one its top folks -- including one who had steered a company
the portfolio once sold short. That call paid off, as Lernout & Hauspie
has since filed for bankruptcy.
On the other hand, some situations that seem to wave red flags may in fact
reveal checkered flags just around the bend. Travel and real estate
services company Cendant (NYSE: CD) was one of the late 1990s'
highest-profile blowups (scroll down for story), as the company's market
value was decimated by news of sketchy audits and accounting. But Henry
Silverman -- who was CEO of HFS Inc. when that company merged with CUC
International to form Cendant in 1997 -- stuck with his ship, and is now
the chairman and CEO of a recovering operation that, while perhaps not a
Wall Street darling, has nevertheless returned to health and investor
favor.
Unfortunately, even a seemingly intensive "background check" may not
protect you from fraud or other criminal -- or, at least, underhanded --
activity. Many accounting shenanigans, for example, are invisible to all
but the eyes of skilled accountants. As a result, some investors may
choose to try to hedge against this by sticking to companies with long
traditions of performance and executives who are known quantities --
though even that strategy can miss.
In stock investing, the total elimination of risk simply isn't possible.
Investing is, however, about understanding risk and the degree to which
you're willing to accept it. Investigating the background of a company's
top management is just one more way to stay on top of important risk
factors, rather than be blindsided by them.
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