Pros
Great research. What other company employs over a hundred financial analysts to get to the bottom of it all? Morningstar heartedly fulfills its mission to accurately report market opportunity (or lack thereof) despite where the chips may fall. The company founder, Joe Mansueto, is also a most benevolent soul. Wielding his 60% controlling interest during the financial crisis, Morningstar made the conscious decision to retain its employees despite significant drops in revenue due to a spiraling economy. Other executives that lost their jobs faced ruin, as employment was impossible to find. Thank you Joe.
Cons
While the research is top notch and the chairman’s penchant for kindness has helped many many people, Morningstar’s marketing department, led by CMO Rob Pinkerton, is a disaster. Freely admitted in a 2017 interview, the position of Chief Marketing Officer is Pinkerton’s first job in marketing. Like any amateur that poses as an expert, Rob Pinkerton sells himself with the acumen of a snake oil salesman. Look at how he describes his tenure at Hello Wallet in the same interview? Another failed Morningstar acquisition. Despite horrible engagement metrics, Pinkerton presents his pet programs as a grand success to senior management where he also promises golden pathways to younger audiences. Alas, he cites accomplishments – even on this job board – where half of those laurels belong to the Individual Investor team, a completely independent and autonomous group. Those achievements were well underway before Pinkerton arrived. Everyone knows this so-called CMO’s threadbare list of tactics lack revenue attribution and worse offer little engagement as proven by bounce rates and anemic form completes. He can’t even supervise the basics. My fear is that senior management actually believes Pinkerton’s mad schemes of a future millennial customer base, when Morningstar’s true north are mature investors. One of the most common mistakes an amateur marketer makes is a cavalier assessment of a brand’s ability to jump the line. Usually, it can’t. Microsoft’s Sataya Nadella says it best: Ryssdal: What's the last semi-significant mistake you made? Nadella: I would say the realization that in many cases, customers have already chosen to work with you and yet you consciously, or unconsciously, abandon them to go work off on the new shiny object is a mistake I've made recently and in the past. And every time I made the mistake, the good part was I've been able to recognize it fast enough. It's tempting in tech to sometimes move on to the next thing. The saddest part about all of this is that Morningstar’s mission really isn’t rocket science – that is, leveraging a vast army of brand loyalists into a billion dollars. Alas, Pinkerton won’t do it because he can’t do it. What he can do is drive a 60% turnover rate in the marketing department over three years. If you're forty or older @ Morningstar, I suggest you start to look for new employment. The man likes em young. Cataloging Rob Pinkerton’s millennial obsession: “Born with smart phones in their hands, millennials are natural digital marketers.” “I want to pack the stage with millennials.” “I’m not interested in your (non-millennial) opinion on the meeting, I want to hear what the millennials think.” “I observed a focus group with millennials who were eager to learn to invest.” Good god. Who talks like that to a work force? Through an inevitable, desperate response, Pinkerton will deny or spin everything here, except the truth of his behavior firmly exists in Morningstar’s public discourse with new witnesses born everyday.