We know that grit makes all the difference in the world for success (kudos to Angela Duckworth for that) but if you’re in a disruptive avant garde industry like activist hedge funds, you better check your pugnaciousness.
I was called the Pitbull of Wall Street like I’m walking around with a picture on my head, but Institutional Investor Magazine this month portrays another “pitbull”, Paul Singer of Elliott Management in The Last Hedge Fund Pit Bull (Michelle Celalier).
Getting into proxy fights is not easy, it is cumbersome, expensive and extremely difficult. Elliott’s fight with Arconic (last 10-Q ARNC ) is not over yet, but they’ve won 3 board seats at the company and ousted ex-CEO Kleinfeld in April.
From that fight Elliott had 9 pages of “ethical concerns” about the CEO. “It suggested the ex-CEO had an inpunitive personality and could not take responsibility for his own failures.” -II
Drilling down on C-suite personalities is incumbent upon someone that is looking at a level of misdirection or apathy in the leadership of a business.
Of course, Elliott is best-known for is protracted battle with Argentina, and they won 75 cents on the dollar for the bonds. But it took 15 years.
Who can successfully fight for 15 years ?
The seizure of that Argentinean ship in Ghana, It was largely symbolic because that ship wasn’t worth the scrap metal on it. But it made a BIG difference in the end.
So is “pugnaciousness” useful ? For lack of a better term, it is. It sounds better than rapaciousness.
Do you have a better word for it ? If you do, let me know.