Eugene Grygo, Chief Content Officer, FTF News
The disruptions rocking the securities industry — fee compression and consolidation, artificial intelligence, big data, analytics and social media — are rippling through the asset management sector and compelling many to reconsider hiring practices for core business functions.
This is according to a report from Greenwich Associates, “Top Asset Management Talent Will Need to Evolve… or be Replaced,” that reviews the changes underway for the institutional marketing, relationship management, consultant relations, and institutional sales groups found at most asset managers. The report was released late last month.
Basically, staff members working in these functional areas will have to evolve “in order for asset management organizations to continue to achieve success in the future,” according to Greenwich Associates. The challenges of disruption are having impacts on business strategies and staffing plans.
“Asset managers need to rethink the way they approach hiring in core business functions, as the need for expertise in such areas as data science and digital communications, as an example, increasingly trumps the benefits of traditionally valued skill sets,” says Sara Sikes, a Greenwich Associates principal and author of the report, in a prepared statement.
In particular, the report finds that CEOs and business-line professionals at asset managers have to get ready for “monumental shifts” in the following areas:
- Institutional Marketing: “Marketing professionals of the future will have strong data science and/or technology backgrounds, a balance of creative and analytical thinking, and an ability to rally diverse groups of people behind a central message or activity. Top performers will be agile thinkers with a willingness to learn or adopt new platforms and approaches. Product knowledge and industry expertise will help candidates to hit the ground running and make an immediate impact.”
- Relationship Management: “As technology alleviates some of the demands of day-to-day relationship management activities, [relationship managers] are being charged with the much higher-level task of delivering ‘value beyond alpha’ to clients, and their success requires a unique blend of abilities. They must have the ability to listen to clients and understand their needs, the product and industry knowledge required to have engaging conversations and make relevant recommendations, and a service mentality that allows them to be proactive in exceeding client expectations.”
- Consultant Relations: “Consultant relations professionals have always taken on the critical role of quarterback for some the firm’s most important relationships. Today, these professionals must not only possess the industry knowledge and social/digital media skills to engage with a sophisticated audience, but they must also have the entrepreneurial spirit required to aggressively identify and cultivate new or innovative opportunities for partnerships in OCIO [outsourced chief investment officer] and other areas.”
- Institutional Sales: “In the future, successful salespeople will be those who embrace data analytics and collaborate with marketing teams to drive smarter and more effective prospecting, making client interactions feel less like sales calls and more like educational sessions that deliver value to institutions in their own right.”
Sikes adds that the comfort zone “that has existed in some asset management organizations for the past 10-to-20 years is disappearing virtually overnight” in response to the emerging disruptions. “But amid this rapid change, investment managers that embrace new role definitions and success factors, harness technology and motivate employees to adopt new best-in-class practices have an opportunity to gain a sustainable competitive advantage,” Sikes adds.
Access to the full report can be found here.
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