As one of the protagonists in the Dupont story, Nelson Peltz has attracted abundant praise and criticism. More than one observer called the situation a watershed in activist investing. Another used it as an opportunity to slam his investment record, which a third then analyzed further. 

Despite the extensive scrutiny, we don't have insight into how he thinks about investing. Like his peer Carl Icahn, we couldn't find any assessment of his investment approach. Earlier we dove into Icahn's portfolio and activist strategy. We'll leave the analysis of Peltz's investment performance to others. Here we dive into his investment process, and see what other investors can learn. 

Like Icahn, Peltz has a distinct approach, with a highly concentrated portfolio, industry emphasis, thorough research, and operational and structural perspective. For all the publicity about the proxy contest at Dupont, it's only his third as a portfolio manager. Like Icahn, he settles with companies, for the BoD positions he values for his partners and himself. These allow him to pursue the operational and structural plan for a company.

We explain that approach in a current blog post.