Publications

- March 2012: Vol. 24 No. 3

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Word Cloud or Fog of Words?: Managers Need to Positively Differentiate Themselves from the Competition

by Ted Leary

Over the past couple of quiet holiday weeks, I made an effort to clean up my messy office. I had piles on piles of presentation pitch books friends and even strangers had sent me asking that I review them and provide comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc. As I remember fondly the help “veterans” gave me when I started out in the investment management business, I try my best to respond to such requests. In addition, I often find them quite interesting to read as it gives me a window on who is out there and what they are doing.

Before filing the pitch books away, I again flipped through about 20 to 25 of them. I quickly realized that they all look an awful lot alike, that it was truly difficult to differentiate one presentation from another. They all blended together after an hour or two of reading.

Having prepared scores of these pitch books for more than 20 years and having struggled with ways to differentiate — in a positive way — our firm from others, I know

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