Discover What Others are Missing…

Applying behavioral analysis to high-value decision-making

Behavioral Analysis Training
Strategic Interviewing Training
Expert Analysis of Earnings Calls
Automated Analysis of Earnings Calls
Pre-deal Executive Profiling
Custom Advisory & Coaching

Based on techniques developed in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), BIA’s Tactical Behavioral Analysis (TBA™) methodology provides meaningful behavior-based insights to institutional investors. By adapting and applying this methodology, originally developed for the national intelligence community, BIA solutions inform high-value decision making through professional development, coaching, advisory and investment diligence services.

"BIA has helped us tremendously. Our partnership with BIA helps us identify and keep quality companies."

Mellody HobsonAriel Investments

I review the [TransparencyAI] analysis of every answer on earnings calls I cover to confirm my read on management or make sure I'm not missing something.

AnalystSource: $15B+ AUM Hedge Fund

"Everyone's looking for an edge. Quarterly conference calls are a very important source of company-specific information. If you can interpret that information better than anyone else, you have an edge.“

Co-Author of Case Study on BIA Professor of Financial Management, Harvard Business School

"(BIA helps) clients… understand whether people are being direct with you or not in their answers to your questions. They’ve been helping us coach each other on how to use our time with management more effectively."

John W. Rogers Jr., Ariel InvestmentsSource: "How to Invest” by David M. Rubenstein

[BIA] teaches you how to… (notice) all these things about little tells… if you start trying to compile a lot of those different signs it may relay where someone is just being flat out dishonest, but what's even more likely, it helps you understand where they are clearly uncomfortable.

Lee Ainslie, Maverick CapitalSource: Invest Like the Best with Patrick O’Shaughnessy

BIA’s AI research product is very helpful, and I especially like the sample question list in their AI reports. I use it to help me prepare for companies that I’m meeting with at conferences.

Portfolio ManagerSource: at a $2bn AUM investment advisor

BETTER INSIGHTS FROM MANAGEMENT INTERACTIONS

Investment Due
Diligence

Analysis of Management Disclosures

BIA’s proprietary TBA methodology incorporates the psychology of how people disclose information. Applying the BIA methodology enables you to formulate more strategic questions and ask questions in unpredictable and non-confrontational ways to avoid repetitive and rehearsed answers. The results are a clearer understanding of management’s true level of confidence to close information gaps.

Business Intelligence Advisors applies a methodical approach to acquiring knowledge about investment decisions. Learn more about a company’s executive team, reputation, litigation and other key operating attributes through both open and primary research from unique, unpaid sources.

BIA looks at management disclosures through a different lens, using behavioral analysis to yield new insight into management’s level of conviction and concerns on a range of topics. You can then make more informed decisions based on the BIA assessment of the completeness and responsiveness of management statements.

Better Interaction Insights with Management

Investment Due Diligence

Analysis OF Management Disclosures

Behavioral Analysis – A Quick Overview

Behavioral analysis attempts to understand, explain, describe and predict what people do and say. BIA’s approach to behavioral analysis relies on a strict analysis, based on a proprietary methodology. These behaviors are gender, cultural and language neutral.

How does BIA use Behavioral Analysis to help clients?
Prepare for and assess management meetings
Analyze scripted and non-scripted statements and interviews, in both transcript and video formats
Measure the level of completeness, confidence and accuracy of responses to questions

Ignorant or Not Ignorant? When CEOs Play Dumb and How to Come Back

January 2025 It isn’t often that a CEO will admit he or she does not know something. But when we at BIA see executives playing dumb during earnings calls, we find it behaviorally interesting. In this edition of Between the Lines, we apply our proprietary Tactical Behavior Assessment® (TBA) methodology to examine some choice examples from the thousands of question-and-answer exchanges we analyzed in 2024 that illustrate why feigning ignorance is significant from a psychological standpoint. We also suggest ways to counteract this type of obfuscation from management teams.

No Regrets? No Apologies!

March 2024 When it comes to apologies, the key to success is sincerity… and some CEOs have a lot to learn. In March, we took advantage of the break in our typical review of corporate earning calls to look at two CEO apologies from the January 31, 2024 Senate hearings on child online safety. While the intent is not to pick on either Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg or Snap CEO Evan Speigel, we thought their apologies provided good behavioral examples and a reminder that the words said do not always reflect the full message provided. In addition, we also took a look at apologies from Ying Liu, Tim Anderson and Princess Catherine.

Behavior Analysis & Strategic Interviewing Courses

Verbal Judo – Black Belt Interviewing for Investors

Verbal Judo introduces techniques using the psychology of deception to overcome management’s resistance to providing responsive information, and helps participants improve their skill in asking follow-up questions.

Advanced Course

Discover What Others Are Missing in Earnings Calls

Designed to reinforce the TBA methodology you learned in the Strategic Information Collection foundational training while introducing you to BIA’s COMPASS methodology (Comprehensive Analysis of Source Statements) to draw deeper conclusions from management’s highly scripted opening statements in earnings calls.

Advanced Course

Checkmate: The Advanced Art of Asking Questions

A hands-on workshop designed to take question formulation skills to the next level.

Advanced Course

Effective Interviewing in Asia

Experts with years of experience in international interviewing share techniques for maximizing the effectiveness of interviews in Asia. Participants will learn how cultural differences must be considered in developing effective question strategies and techniques to facilitate disclosure.

Advanced Course

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About Us

BIA’s proprietary Tactical Behavior Assessment® methodology was derived from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and is used to identify language and behavioral cues that indicate when an individual isn’t being entirely candid.

Founded in 2001 on the principle that methodologies originally developed for the national intelligence community could be powerfully applied to the private sector, BIA has been working with institutional investors, venture capital firms, private equity firms, and other entities since, helping them gain unique insights by using our approach.

Discover What Others are Missing…

Behavioral Analysis – A Quick Overview

Behavior Analysis & Strategic Interviewing Courses

About Us

Contact Us