Question for Buy-Side Analysts: How do you learn "all" about a company?

Hello all,

I am an aspiring fundamental/value-oriented investor about to begin B school at NYU. I know that the recruiting process for IM is very unstructured and consists mostly of reaching out to alums in the business and pitching stocks ... this is fine with me, this is what I came to do. I have a CFA charter and have read countless books by Graham, Buffet, Greenwald, Klarman, etc ...but do not have "official" investing experience, other than my PA (I did run portfolios for retail investors as an FA ... but that consisted of picking funds and ETFs, not directly investing in companies).

I would like to know the most efficient way to learn about a company and its key drivers of business performance (NOT stock price behavior). Other than reading the SEC filings and sell-side transcripts, how do you really learn about a company in-depth?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

Speaking to management and industry analysts (mainly sell-side) and form your own opinions.

[quote]The HBS guys have MAD SWAGGER. They frequently wear their class jackets to boston bars, strutting and acting like they own the joint. They just ooze success, confidence, swagger, basically attributes of alpha males.[/quote]
 
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