Shooting stars

Every so often we have a fund that is headed by a star manager who captures the focus of investors, advisers and researchers, so how do we discern the true role of people versus process and how should we separate the two? There is a need to distinguish between key person and group think risk – and perhaps there should be a wariness factor for managers reliant on star managers. Whose job is it to understand a manager’s team dynamics and how far can we go in understanding the impact of personal issues on a manager’s focus/ability and incentives. And how do we ensure clients are not getting burnt by star managers going rogue. For several of these high-profile fund managers – ASX listing is the goal. How distracting is the listing and ASX listed management structure?