A lot of you out there in institutional investor–land like to have your data delivered to you in a specific format. Like customers of the Burger King Worldwide fast-food chain, you’ve grown accustomed to having it your way. As an institutional investor, it’s your prerogative to have the information you want from your investment managers presented in the way you want it to be presented. But there is a cost associated with forcing your investment managers to comply with your wishes. Good managers, just like the operating companies many of them partner with to execute your investment strategies, are happy to comply with whatever information demands you might want to make. But because every investor and every consultant has a slightly different set of guidelines defining precisely what kinds of information they need and want, managers and operators have to employ armies of reporting people to meet these slightly differing individual requirements.
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