Where Investment Meets Innovation
Initially, the Innovation Index was a compilation of the top 18 Innovators in North America (the “Innovators”). Two more Innovators were added in 2007.
Most of the Innovators in the Innovation Index are prestigious companies including GE, 3M, HP, IBM, and Proctor & Gamble that have created numerous innovations and shaped our world over the past fifty plus years. Some leaders are better known by their innovative product brands - Blackberry by Research In Motion, iPod and iMac by Apple, online shopping by Amazon.com, Windows and Office by Microsoft, Microprocessor powered by Intel. The list also includes leaders whose creativity and brands have become synonymous to markets: networks by Cisco, computers by Dell, e-commerce trade by eBay, hot coffee and cappuccino by Starbucks, fashionable clothing by Target, discount shopping by Wal-Mart, low airline fares by Southwest Airlines, and search nirvana by Google. America Movil and Yahoo! Inc. were added to create the Top 20 Innovators for 2007. Six Innovators were added in 2008.
New Innovators are chosen at the end of each calendar year for investments; some, none or all of the existing innovators may remain in the new list.
Founding Philosophy
The investment principles that guide the Innovation Index Group are very similar to the principles that have guided some of the most successful investors in the history of the U.S. stock market such as Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham.
Investment Principles
1. Isolate top Innovators that have demonstrated a solid history of innovations, revenue and earnings growth.
2. Conduct a thorough analysis based on facts to determine the intrinsic value of each selected Innovator relative to its market.
3. Track and invest in top Innovators, so that investments can be made when their stock is available at a discounted price compared to intrinsic value so that a "margin of safety" exists.
4. Increase or decrease investment in a particular Innovator based on appreciation or depreciation in its stock performance, changes in current or projected earnings or revenue growth, changes in management or other market factors.
5. Liquidation of investment in a particular Innovator based on set triggers for performance gains or losses, or change in top Innovators at the end of each calendar year.
The Innovation Index Group is grounded on the belief that Top Innovators who have demonstrated a solid history of innovations, revenue and earnings growth are most likely to produce the highest stock market returns in the future. These Innovators need not be the top company by market cap for a particular sector; rather they could very well be challengers or “disrupters” that have demonstrated a real market for their products or services, are growing faster than the rate of the market (at times creating new markets altogether) and possibly grabbing market share from other competitors.
Differentiating Principles
The following principles differentiate our investment methodology from other fund and investment managers:
1. Investments are limited to the crème de la crème– the best Innovators in their respective markets and industries are chosen after a complete, factual analysis as described earlier.
2. The Top 20 Innovators must each have a market cap of at least $10 billion and annual revenue of $2 billion. Thus, investments are limited to those Innovators who have grown into companies with a significant market capitalization and have demonstrated a superior history of revenue and earnings growth.
3. Investments for each Innovator are weighted based on the each Innovator’s launched innovations in the previous year, announced innovations for the upcoming year, market capitalization, earnings growth, revenue growth, projected earnings and revenue growth, analyst recommendations, historical and projected stock performance, current stock price, market fluctuations and its impact on the current stock price, “margin of safety,” and other micro and macro economic factors that could impact the growth of the innovator in the coming year.
4. A set percent of the available capital is set aside for short-term investments in the Innovators.
5. Investments are limited to the top 20 Innovators, because we believe on focusing on a select group of companies with the most growth potential.
Management
Sanjay Dalal
Sanjay Dalal is the President and Managing Director of Innovation Index Group. Sanjay is an appointed member of the Dean's Leadership Circle of The
Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine. Sanjay introduced The Innovation Index in December 2006 at his blog - http://creativityandinnovation.blogspot.com - and has been publishing regular reports on The Innovation Index.
Sanjay systematically invests into the companies of The Innovation Index, understands and invests into the emerging market growth companies, and selectively invests in the international stock markets for the past seven years. Sanjay follows the tutelage of investors and leaders including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham and Peter Lynch. Sanjay has recently published the Creativity and Innovation in Business Definitive Guide.
Sanjay has over ten years technology experience at emerging Silicon Valley companies in key positions of business development, products and marketing. At WebEx Communications, Inc., Sanjay, in his role as a product manager and product director, introduced two innovative web collaboration products, WebEx Training Center and WebEx Sales Center, that became market share leaders in their category generating millions of dollars in new business. Sanjay holds joint U.S. Patent for "System and Method for Managing Remote Computer Labs" for WebEx Training Center. Sanjay led the first two acquisitions for WebEx, and participated in over 30 strategic partnerships.
Sanjay helped grow software product line revenue from launch to seventy plus million dollars in annual business. Prior to WebEx, Sanjay worked in strategic product management roles at eComLive, as an engineer at IBM, and engineering and business projects at Honeywell Bull.
Sanjay is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin in Electrical Engineering (Dean’s Honor Roll, Engineering Scholar, President’s Honor Roll at OU), pursued graduate education at Arizona State University in Computer Science, and completed professional certification on Leading Management Teams at Cornell University. Sanjay received the first position in the 50th William Lowell Putnam Math Competition.
In his spare time, Sanjay coaches and mentors his son’s 7th grade school Rancho, NJB and IYBL basketball teams. He also volunteers as an Art Master for his daughter’s 2nd grade class at Turtle Rock and participates in the School Site Council for raising the performance of the elementary school students. In 2006-2007, Sanjay was the appointed member by the Board of Education for the Technology Advisory Committee for the entire Fremont School District.
Sanjay is married and resides with his wife and children in Irvine, California.
Steven M. Gribben
Steven Gribben serves as legal counsel for Innovation Index Fund, LLC. Prior to his involvement with the Company, he has served as general counsel for the investment company Westmoore Management, LLC, the sports technology company SportSense, LLC, and the real estate lending company First Option Finance, Inc. He has also participated as a principal in land entitlement projects with Capstone Development Group, LLC, and Ethan Christopher, LLC.
Mr. Gribben began his career working for the venture capital fund Westar Financial, which focused on alternative real estate investments related to the purchase of unique bank loan portfolios. At Westar, Mr. Gribben worked as an analyst and helped manage the development of an internet startup that sold Westar's foreclosure properties.
Mr. Gribben later enrolled at the UCLA School of Law where he focused on corporate and securities transactional work. While at UCLA, Mr. Gribben teamed with a partner in a small corporate firm to create Startup Legal, Inc., which provided incorporation services for new businesses. Later, Mr. Gribben used the client base from Startup Legal to found Gribben & Associates, Inc. (www.gribbeninc.com)
Mr. Gribben received his B.A. Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Southern California and his Juris Doctorate from the UCLA School of Law. He is member of the California Bar and a licensed California real estate broker.
Hark M Vasa
Harkishan (Hark) M Vasa is Director and Advisor of IIG. Mr. Vasa came to the USA from Mumbai, India in 1967. Prior to coming to the USA, Mr. Vasa studied at Victoria Jubilee Tech Institute (VJTI) where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. After getting his Masters degree in Computer Sciences and Industrial Engineering in 1968 from West Virginia University, Mr. Vasa worked at Union Carbide and at Dialog Computing where he worked on computers and technology marketing and sales.
In 1971, Mr. Vasa joined Decision Sciences Corp(DSC) in Jenkintown (Philadelphia Pennsylvania area) as a project Manager for development of Information Systems products in general and Customer Service Management Systems in particular. Soon, Mr. Vasa was promoted to VP of Business Development at DSC. In 1980, Mr. Vasa sold several large contracts in the West Coast (California area) and relocated to Los Angeles where he set up a separate business unit named Pacific Decision Sciences Corp (PDSC). In 1983, Mr. Vasa purchased the PDSC business unit from DSC and became President and CEO of PDSC.
PDSC started expanding rapidly under Mr. Vasa’s leadership and Mr. Vasa then set up several offices and relationships for PDSC in various countries including in Santa Ana USA (HQ), Florida-USA, UK, Singapore, and India. Under Mr. Vasa’s leadership, PDSC carried out over $100 Million of projects in Customer Service, Info Tech, and consulting services for various major corporations including IBM, XEROX, France Telecom, Citicorp, Public Service Gas and Electric, Kodak, Whirlpool, Bank Of America, Rockwell, Lexmark, McDonnell Douglas, Tymshare, Tymnet, Equant, Norwegian Army, CMS of Africa, and many others. In 2000, PDSC’s sales was $10 Million and pre-tax profit was $3.2 Million when Mr. Vasa sold the PDSC business to Applied Digital and continued to work there as President of PDSC through the end of Dec 2002.
From 2003 through 2007, Mr. Vasa worked on several non-profit community services activities to help Indo-American communities.
Mr. Vasa was a founding Director and major donor to Indo-American Cultural center (Since then renamed Artwallah. Mr. Vasa is a founding director of Friends of Sardar Patel Award Association where $250K endowment fund was set up from several donors to give out annual awards.
Mr. Vasa is a founding director of Indo American Senior Heritage Group which provides variety of community services to people over the age of 50. Mr. Vasa is also very active and Director of Jain Center of Southern California. Mr. Vasa is also a founding Director of Anekant Community Center which provides a variety of community services worldwide.
In 2006 and 2007 Mr. Vasa raised over $5 Million in private equity for investments in various ventures. The ROI on these investments is in excess of 30% annualized. During 2008, Mr. Vasa plans to raise over $15 Million for investments in various hotel properties around the world.
During October 2007, Mr. Vasa set up a new business, Vasa Business Services (VBS). VBS will provide various services including raising money for businesses, Merger/Acquisitions, Set up collaborations and technology transfer, provide marketing and sales guidance, consult top level management to help them with business expansion globally and outsourcing services.
Mr. Vasa resides in North Tustin and is married to Kusum since 1970. MR. Vasa has two daughters (Anita, Sarita) both are married.
Irving R. Katz
Irving Katz serves as an Advisor to Innovation Index Group. Mr Katz has been a Financial Strategist for over 38 years and is the CEO of Katz Financial LLC. Over the years, Katz's clients have retained him for his expertise, and his ability to remain current.
Mr. Katz specializes in Retirement Planning, Wealth Creation, Wealth Retention and Estate planning for his Business Owner clients.
* To implement the best plans for his clients, Mr. Katz teams with the client’s accountant, and attorney to ensure all of his clients key advisors are on the same page. Mr. Katz practices advisor collaboration.
* Most recently Mr. Katz has taught business building workshops for his clients and their strategic partners. These include Client Acquisition, Outperforming the Competition and Business Planning.
* Mr Katz’s focus is on helping his clients create, preserve and distribute business and personal assets. His success has been guided by a strong commitment to meeting each client’s business and personal financial needs.
Irving Katz, MBA, MSFS, CHFE, CLU received his MBA in Finance & Marketing from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University. He is a Registered Investment Advisor, Chartered Life Underwriter, Life Analyst and a Chartered Financial Consultant.