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interest in Reiss's Georgica Partners, a hedge fund that focuses on media stocks. Andersen, who has an office at Cumberland, acts as an informal consultant.

Of the assets under management, about 10 percent are the current partners' and retired principals' assets.

With this structure, turnover is low. In hiring people into the firm, they do not necessarily look for Wall Street people. They look for people with experience in appraising companies. Patel was from McKinsey, and Larry Rifkin was from an investment bank. "We pay a lot of attention to personality. We want people for the long haul. We want an equity owner. We don't want hotshots or hired guns," says Wilcox.

Money is not the primary motivator. Self-realization and fulfillment are key.

LONG-TERM VALUE ORIENTATION

Throughout the 30-year track record, there has been very little variation in the approach and structure of the firm. There have generally been four to six portfolio managers.

While each of the five portfolio managers has his own individual approach and style, they all adhere to long-term value investing. Generally, they look at discounted cash flow adjusted for large opportunity or risk parameters.

On the black box-fundamental continuum, Cumberland is definitely at the fundamental end. They seek out securities that are significantly mispriced on an earnings per share, cash flow, and/or private market value basis.

Wilcox says they see growth and value investing as reconcilable. They seek to quantify the reasonable current value of businesses based on future net cash flows, discounted at an appropriate cost of capital. "This eclectic definition of value enables us to adapt to different market and business cycles and to a wide range of industries and capitalization sizes. Generally, we seek out situations on both the long and short side which have not only a large differential between market price and value but also some form of catalyst to optimization of market price and therefore shareholder value."

As value investors, they ask primary questions such as, "What is the company worth? What is the value accretion rate? What can we buy it