This top Australian Investors Podcast episode features Claude Walker from A Rich Life. Claude is an independent journalist and former investment analyst who is passionate about small cap and ethical investing.

He believes one of his key investment edges lies in identifying management teams that are either very high quality or very poor.

In this conversation we talk about some simple (and less than simple) strategies to identify management teams with talent and integrity, in particular small-cap companies on the ASX.

Strategies discussed includes:

• Management communication
• Assessing incentives of key people
• What skin in the game?!
• Good horses versus good jockeys
• Management teams with technical skills
• Using management signals confirm business fundamentals
• Claude says, “actions can confirm what you thought was happening in the numbers”
• Spotting and interpreting management accounting tricks

We also talk about PR agencies and the problem with incentives in today’s era of investment news and regulation. Be careful where you get your financial “news”.

Companies discussed:

• @43:00 - OneView Health (ASX: ONE) and the recent (and a little concerning) agreement with the S3 Consortium. Neither Owen nor Claude have any interest in this company (long or short). We just found this agreement very bizarre.
• Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX: PME)
• MyDeal (ASX: MYD)
• Nanosonics Ltd (ASX: NAN)
• Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) (in passing)
• Okta Inc (NASDAQ: OKTA)
• Corum Group (ASX: COO)
• Urbanise.com (ASX: UBN)
• Monash Health (ASX: MVF)

Keep up to date with Claude’s work at A Rich Life:

• A Rich Life website

Owen’s prior episode with Claude

Say g’day on Twitter:

• Owen Rask
• Claude Walker

At the time of writing, Owen Raszkiewicz owns shares of Okta and Pro Medicus.

Recorded Wednesday Wednesday, March 17th.

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://bit.ly/2PRUgMV

Owen's resources:

• Get Owen's full analyst training & view memberships
• Get in touch with Jamie or Drew - click here to reach Wattle

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