About a year ago, Barry Tarasoff had himself a Jerry Maguire moment. Like the character played by Tom Cruise, who suddenly wages a one-man assault on the venal and cynical behavior of the professional sports industry, Mr. Tarasoff decided that the prevailing practices in his field had to change.

Since 2002, Mr. Tarasoff has been head of investment research for SG Cowen & Company, an investment bank owned by Societe Generale that specializes in the print and broadcast, technology, and health care industries.

Some years ago, he was the no. 1 analyst covering IBM. How do we know he was no. 1? Because the Institutional Investor told us so, and also told us who was no. 2 and no. 3, in an annual poll that has completely consumed the attention of Wall Street research departments for many years.

In part, it is this infatuation with the II poll that so irks Mr. Tarasoff. Having walked the walk and talked the talk, Mr. Tarasoff is in an excellent position to know how time-consuming and wasteful the energies spent on succeeding in that poll are. Analysts traditionally spend the months leading up to the poll indulging clients who are confessed voters with innumerable phone calls, luncheons and visits in hopes of snagging their votes.

Some firms link compensation to an analyst’s position on the II list; headhunters line up to poach highly-ranked analysts in order to boost competing firms’ standings in the polls. Rarely have the standings reflected what should, perhaps, be the sole criteria for success – investment acumen.

It is attention to that woefully neglected commodity that Mr. Tarasoff is attempting to resurrect. So, he sent out a letter to clients. It was a shocker.

First, he upbraided Wall Street for serving false idols (the polls) and neglecting the very real objective of making money for clients through sound stock advice. More dramatic was his enumeration of changes that he was going to make at SG Cowen in order to right certain wrongs.

First, Mr. Tarasoff announced that he was eliminating the company’s rating system for stocks. He pointed out that such tags on securities were often confusing, that time horizons could not easily be addressed and that the systems suffered from inflexibility. Most delicious was his assertion that analysts would be much better off “using the rich fullness of the English language.” How refreshing!

Then, he ruled out the issuance of the ubiquitous post-earnings notes – surely in competition with the Official Airline Guide for the dullest body of published material extant. The detailed depiction of how a company did during each quarter is myopic, generally not helpful in determining any long-term position, and typically duplicated by every analyst on the street.

Last, Mr. Tarasoff announced that henceforth, the analysts at SG Cowen would not be providing “maintenance research.” Rather, their time would be (better) spent increasing their coverage, looking for good investment ideas.

Yikes! What a bold move. According to Mr. Tarasoff, the reaction to his missive was widespread and vocal, and mostly enthusiastic. Admittedly, a few analysts were skeptical at first, fearful that the changes would hurt their relationships with clients.

A year later, how has it worked out?

Today, the Cowen analysts are universally, heartily, on board. Most impressive is that the number of companies being followed by the firm has increased to 470 at year-end 2004 from 315 at the end of 2003; by the end of this year Mr. Tarasoff expects his department to be following 600 companies. The number of analysts hasn’t changed.

Other dividends from the freed-up analysts’ time are two new reports issued by the firm. The first is the “Investment Controversy” series, in which analysts identify issues that are, yes, controversial, and take a stance. The second is the “Non-consensus Idea Series,” in which analysts are supposed to recognize when they are veering from mainstream thinking. Mr. Tarasoff judges the best investment ideas to be correct non-consensus ideas, and he is right.

SG Cowen is not a huge player in the investment research game, but it is hard to imagine that such creative management won’t be rewarded. Clients are looking for good investment ideas; Cowen is focused on providing good investment ideas. What’s shocking is how novel a concept this is.

Ms. Peek can be reached at lpeek@nysun.com.