How to Spot the Worst-Managed Companies

Management is critical to a company's success. And it's often a good place to start your evaluation of whether one company would make a better investment than another -- especially within the same sector or industry.

Here's a primer on how I identify the poorly run players in a specific business, plus my three picks for the worst-managed U.S. companies of the year.

My Criteria

While not all the companies on my list suffer from every one of the following problems, they meet at least one or more of these negative characteristics which make them lousy investments, and potentially excellent short sales. ...