Sounding optimistic and focused, Janus top dog Steve Scheid opened up to investors and the media during an earnings call on Thursday. Also speaking during the call were Robin Berry, chief marketing officer, and Loren Starr, chief financial officer.

Many of the revelations concerned staffing at the firm. Choice positions open at the firm include a global head of distribution, head of risk management and equity research analysts, Scheid said during the call.

Scheid said that the search for a global distribution head was "attracting very very strong candidates."

Speaking for Chief Investment Officer Gary Black, Scheid said the firm would seek to fill the head of risk management position for the firm.

Also on the investment side, Janus hopes to add analysts to increase its stock coverage from 1,000 to 1,200. Analysts covering sectors that are currently not covered by the company will likely be added within six to eight months, said Scheid.

A few positions have already been filled. John Bluher will join Janus in August as the company's new general counsel. John Zimmerman, the new head of distribution for the institutional business, joined the firm on June 1, 401kwire reported. Zimmerman is slated to "reengineer" Janus' institutional business, creating a separate and distinct institutional identity and product, said Beery.

Other efforts include a new print and online "back to basics" branding campaign that officials will launch this fall.

Beery said that the firm was "very pleased" with the results of a recently completed investor study that found that investors view fundamental research as a "positive attribute and one that is exclusively synonymous with the Janus name." Scheid said Janus would spend $7 million for its branding campaign in the second half of 2004 to promote the firm's "back to basics" message. Expect product-specific and new product materials, said Beery.

In other efforts, Scheid said he had "quite a bit of work to do" on revamping the company's compensation structure. Shying away from specifics, Scheid said that compensation would be tied to both management company performance and investment performance, resulting in a "stronger alignment to public and fund shareholders."

Besides the usual pie charts, the presentation slides accompanying the call were also chock-full of detailed information about the firm's asset flows. Among the tidbits shared included asset flows by distribution channel, something Scheid said the fund firm had not previously disclosed to the public.

Janus Breaks It Down
Assets by Channel	Assets Under Management ($ Billion)	% of Total Company AUM
Direct No-Load	$36.3	26.8%
Defined Contribution	$22.1	16.3%
Insurance	$13.2	9.7%
Supermarket Retail	$11.3	8.4%
Separately Managed	$20.1	14.9%
Sub-Advised	$10.7	7.9%
Broker Dealer/RIA	$6.8	5.1%
Offshore/International	$5.9	4.3%
Source: Presentation slides

Asset recovery from the defined contribution channel has been the slowest, said Beery. Defined contribution clients were "much more methodical" to put firms on their watch lists, and Janus expects those same clients to apply the same thinking in removing companies off watch lists. Beery said Janus hopes to get funds back on new plan platforms by the end of this year.

Improving and increasing distribution was a key theme of the call. Beery said that the fund firm hopes to increase its insurer-sold broker-dealer and insurer-sold defined contribution channels. To aid that effort, Janus will launch new share classes to expand distribution in those channels. Executives estimate that the intermediary effort will result in a $1 million pretax profit impact in 2004 and $3 to $5 million in 2005.

The company plans on achieving this growth organically: "acquisitions are not on the table in the near term," said Scheid. 

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