Investing in Companies Based on Management Behavior: A Conversation with Karim Mawji
Excerpt from Business Today. See original here.“Founded in 2017, Paragon Intel gathers and provides data on management teams to better help investors develop informed insights on the companies they invest in. In an interview with Karim Mawji, the company’s Founding Partner and Head of Research, he explained how there has traditionally been a large community of investors who primarily analyze the company and places less emphasis on qualifying the human capital component. Paragon seeks to integrate analysis of both elements, based on the principle that the “degree of fit” between management and company typically adds or detracts significant value from investments.
Within Paragon Intel, a team of ex-hedge fund managers and analysts, investigative journalists, and ex-intelligence officers leverage their diverse expertise to perform comprehensive investigations and analysis before and after major structural changes to a company. “CEO Change” is a solution pioneered by Paragon to help investors capitalize on management change and accompanying strategic and organizational restructurings. Whenever a company hires a new CEO, Paragon employs its investigative journalists to conduct interviews with the new CEO’s former colleagues, typically spanning their career from college to their current role. Mawji believes that a leadership change often occurs because the CEO has been unable to execute on their mandate and that sometimes skills a CEO has built throughout their career may no longer be applicable to the challenges the company faces. Thus, analyzing the new CEO’s capabilities, decision making, and track record provides insight for investors on whether their leadership will “create or destroy shareholder value.””
Yu, Jia. “Investing in Companies Based on Management Behavior: A Conversation With Karim Mawji, Founding Partner and Head of Research at Paragon Intel.” Business Today, 8 Jan. 2020, https://journal.businesstoday.org/bt-online/2020/investing-in-companies-based-on-management-behavior-a-conversation-with-karim-mawji-founding-partner-and-head-of-research-at-paragon-intel. Accessed 8 Sept. 2022.