Key Takeaways
In this paper, you get insights of how to build a long-term business, a Cathedral in a people’s business like Asset Management.
The key challenge is that your company’s key asset – the people – can walk out the door at any time. Some might try to build an organization, where the system is more important than the people. Unsurprisingly, you get exactly what you aim for – a company that loses people. The only way to mitigate the risk of losing people is to embrace the people risk.
It’s up to the founders and the first generations of key people – to possess the mindset for building for the long-term. Ingraining that mindset in the decision- making and the philosophy of the company defines culture and makes it possible. Strong culture brings life to the Cathedral.
The active, people-driven asset manager takes the risk of running such an organization. The clients can then exploit the alpha opportunity of active management in a low-risk way – keeping the flexibility of being able to hire and fire the active manager, while leaving the complexities of managing the operation to the active people-driven manager.
