Ramon Hörler
Partner
Ramon Hörler
Partner
Ramon Hörler brings a robust background in sustainable finance and portfolio management, grounded in both academic research and industry practice. As a Research Assistant and PhD candidate at the Chair of Sustainable Finance & Investments at the University of Liechtenstein, he examines the impact of sustainable regulations and disclosure requirements on financial markets. Previously, he worked for an independent asset manager—first as a Portfolio Management Intern and then as a Junior Portfolio Manager—where he produced fund factsheets, portfolio reports, and Investment Committee materials, maintained due-diligence files, and conducted AML transaction controls. Earlier in his career, he served as an Investment Advisor at a Swiss cantonal bank, leading customer acquisition, product-development projects, and investment-tool operations. He holds an MSc in Finance and a BSc in Business Administration and applies a structured, data-informed approach to analysis. Proficient in MS Office and R, he combines quantitative rigor with a keen understanding of regulatory reporting and risk-control processes. Outside of finance, Ramon competed as a professional handball player in Switzerland’s Nationalliga A for eight years, where he honed teamwork, strategic thinking, and resilience. He is passionate about skiing and road cycling, relishing both the technical demands of steep alpine terrain and the endurance challenges of long-distance rides.
Economic turbulence has become the new norm. Trade wars escalate, tariff conflicts intensify, and traditional investment strategies struggle to deliver consistent returns. Yet amidst this volatility, certain companies continue to thrive—those that demonstrate exceptional productivity, resilience, and operational excellence. The challenge lies in identifying these productivity leaders before the market recognizes their value. Traditional assessment models, while foundational to portfolio construction, often fall short in capturing the complex productivity dynamics that drive long-term value creation. They rely heavily on style factors and macroeconomic indicators, frequently overlooking the non-linear relationships and firm-level productivity metrics that truly matter. Averdas addresses this gap through a scientifically-driven, multifactor approach that systematically identifies companies with superior productivity characteristics. Our methodology leverages advanced analytics and proprietary data sets to evaluate four distinct productivity dimensions, enabling investors to construct resilient portfolios that outperform across economic cycles.
Understanding the Averdas Factors
The Averdas framework encompasses four complementary factors that collectively capture different aspects of corporate productivity. Each factor addresses specific operational and financial dimensions, providing a comprehensive evaluation of company performance that transcends traditional metrics.
Company Resilience Factor: Financial Adaptability Under Pressure
Corporate resilience extends beyond simple financial strength—it encompasses a company's ability to adapt to unforeseen shocks while maintaining operational effectiveness. The Firm Resilience Factor employs cash flow analytics to assess how well companies navigate volatility and sustain productivity during challenging periods. This factor analyzes multiple cash flow metrics to identify companies with robust financial foundations and superior adaptability. By focusing on output-input maximization, it reveals which organizations can maintain productivity levels even when facing significant external pressures.
For business analysts, investors, and executives, this translates into actionable insights for portfolio construction and risk management. Companies scoring highly on this factor demonstrate the financial agility necessary to weather economic storms while positioning themselves for growth during recovery phases.
The applications span multiple contexts:
- Development of resilient investment portfolios focused on productivity
- Risk-return optimization for firm resilience investment strategies
- Individual stock assessment for resilient productivity performance
Process Factor: Operational Excellence Through Efficiency
Operational processes vary dramatically across organizations, often creating complexities that obscure true performance comparisons. The Process Factor addresses this challenge by examining both operational efficiency and capital utilization through a data-driven lens. This factor provides comprehensive insights into workflow optimization and resource allocation effectiveness. By analyzing how companies manage their operational processes, it identifies organizations that excel in converting inputs into valuable outputs while minimizing waste and inefficiencies. The practical benefits extend beyond simple cost reduction. Companies with superior process productivity demonstrate enhanced decision-making capabilities, improved profitability, and sustainable competitive advantages that translate into long-term outperformance.
Key applications include:
- Process-productive investment portfolio development
- Corporate strategy risk-return profile optimization
- Individual stock process productivity assessment
Resource Efficiency Factor: Sustainable Performance Through ESG Excellence
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data presents significant evaluation challenges due to inconsistent reporting standards and limited comparability across companies. The Averdas Resource Efficiency Factor overcomes these obstacles through a distinctive, science-driven methodology that objectively analyzes sustainability performance. This factor identifies companies achieving optimal resource efficiency ratios while maintaining strong financial performance. Rather than relying on subjective ESG scores, it employs quantitative analysis to assess how effectively organizations utilize resources to generate sustainable value. The implications for investment strategy are substantial. Companies demonstrating superior resource efficiency often exhibit greater operational stability, reduced regulatory risks, and enhanced stakeholder relationships—factors that contribute to sustained outperformance over time.
Investment applications encompass:
- Resource-efficient investment portfolio development
- Sustainability fund risk-return improvement
- Individual stock resource performance explanation for investors
Asset Factor: Innovation Through Productive Asset Management
Asset productivity evaluation presents unique challenges due to the diverse nature of innovation-related investments and their complex relationships with financial outcomes. The Asset Factor employs cutting-edge analytics to systematically identify companies that excel in asset management while fostering meaningful innovation. This factor analyzes how organizations effectively manage capital, human resources, and technology assets to generate superior returns. It provides structured insights into companies' ability to transform investments in research and development, intellectual property, and operational infrastructure into tangible competitive advantages. Companies demonstrating high asset productivity typically exhibit strong innovation capabilities, effective capital allocation, and the ability to monetize their investments successfully. These characteristics translate into sustained market positioning and superior long-term returns.
The Asset Factor enables:
- Asset-productive investment portfolio development
- Corporate investment strategy risk-return optimization
- Individual stock asset productivity assessment
Proven Performance Through Market Volatility
The effectiveness of the Averdas approach becomes particularly evident during periods of economic stress. Recent performance data demonstrates consistent outperformance across both U.S. and global markets during the current trade war and tariff conflict environment. In the U.S. universe, three of four Averdas factors outperformed the S&P 1500 benchmark during 2025's challenging market conditions. The Asset Factor and Multi-Factor approach even delivered positive returns while the broader market declined. Similarly, in global markets, four factors exceeded the STOXX Global 1800 benchmark, with the Process Factor achieving particularly strong performance.
This outperformance pattern remained consistent during the COVID-19 crisis from 2020 to 2023, demonstrating the robustness of the methodology across different types of economic disruption. The factors consistently generated alpha regardless of the specific nature of the macroeconomic challenges, underscoring their ability to identify genuinely productive companies rather than benefiting from temporary market conditions.
Real-world examples illustrate these concepts in practice:
- Asset Productivity Leadership: Catalyst Pharmaceuticals exemplifies effective asset utilization through strategic acquisitions, patent optimization, and successful product launches that generated record revenues and industry recognition.
- Process Productivity Excellence: Verisign demonstrates operational excellence by optimizing DNS infrastructure to handle massive query volumes while maintaining exceptional reliability and strong profit margins.
- Resource Efficiency Leadership: BMW advances sustainability through renewable energy adoption, circular economy integration, and supply chain emission reductions while preserving financial performance.
- Resilience Excellence: IBM strengthens enterprise resilience capabilities through expanded disaster recovery services and comprehensive risk mitigation frameworks that deliver measurable client value.
Leveraging Data-Driven Insights for Investment Success
The convergence of structural economic challenges—deglobalization, demographic shifts, decarbonization, and rising debt levels—creates both risks and opportunities for investors. Companies that enhance productivity can navigate these headwinds while positioning themselves for sustainable growth. Averdas factors provide the analytical framework necessary to identify these productivity leaders systematically. By combining scientific rigor with practical applicability, this approach enables investors to construct portfolios that deliver consistent outperformance across economic cycles.
The methodology's strength lies in its comprehensive nature—evaluating companies across multiple productivity dimensions rather than relying on single metrics or style factors. This multi-faceted analysis reveals opportunities that traditional approaches often miss while providing the diversification benefits essential for risk management. For institutional investors seeking consistent alpha generation and resilient returns, the Averdas approach offers a compelling solution backed by quantitative evidence and proven performance across diverse market conditions. The combination of innovative analytics, comprehensive factor coverage, and systematic implementation creates a robust foundation for navigating economic uncertainty while capturing sustainable value creation opportunities.
