Follow the Money: A Framework for Investors to Evaluate Management as Capital Allocators

An objective framework for assessing management’s effectiveness in deploying capital to increase shareholder value.

Shareholders’ lack of direct control over cash flow represents a blind spot in traditional cash flow-based valuation. Management might deploy a company’s free cash flow in many ways that don’t add shareholder value. Management controls the balance sheet, retaining discretion over assets and power to borrow against future cash flows. This document will help investors evaluate management’s critical role as capital allocator.