The aim of this paper is to focus on the personal financial traits of individuals and shows how they directly affect the financial performance and valuation of an organization.
The paper presents an approach to management and leadership that is very bottom‐line oriented and focused on organizational value creation.
The paper finds that we all have traits that lead us to make financial decisions in a particular way. Once we understand that particular way, or “financial signature”, we can predict how a particular executive, or individual, will make financial decisions. This, in turn, allows us to predict the financial performance of that executive, or executive team.
The paper recognizes that many executives, who would not rank highly on traditional personality and competency‐based leadership ratings, are often highly successful leaders who create outstanding products, profitability and value for their shareholders.
