Culture is a unique ingredient in the struggle for competitive advantage among institutional investment organisations. There are ways for culture to be managed and developed over time but it will take focus, patience, leadership and process. Having a clearer description of your culture without recourse to stereotypes is the best starting point to that journey.
Leadership is broadly defined as the acts of anyone who steps out of their regular tasks to help and motivate others. Leadership in our industry narrative has typically meant dominant and accomplished operators whose powers were granted from high up. But there is a movement towards servant-minded and quietly inspiring leadership types where powers are granted from lower down. This version plays out in organisations that have created inclusive and psychologically safe conditions and help people with their resilience during tough times.
Together, and when used effectively, we believe these two elements will create a clear measurable edge for an investment organisation, which is why the Institute is focusing on culture as part of our 2020 research agenda, and have launched The power of culture study.
Related forum posts (members only)
Do we really know our organisation?
What have we learnt about effective culture at investment organisations?
Raising our game: from gender diversity to embracing whole identity
Culture can be a measurable edge for investment organisations
Stronger theory: we need deeper thinking on diversity
Further reading
Research paper: The Impact of Culture on Institutional Investors
Speech: Collective decision-making in action (members only)
Events
Culture summit 2021
Superteams : understanding legends and building legacies
Videos
Podcasts
Key articles
Research and further content
The Power of Culture whitepaper (members only)
This whitepaper builds on the The power of culture study, which involved 15 asset managers and asset owners. These leader organisations joined the study in various ways to better understand their own cultural signature and leadership, where they sit on a spectrum and how they could sharpen their own competitive edge.
The impact of culture on institutional investors
Culture is a unique ingredient in the struggle for competitive advantage among institutional investment organisations. There are ways for culture to be managed and developed over time but it will take focus, patience, leadership and process.
Following more in-depth research into effective culture in investment organisations we are now launching a global peer study of asset managers and asset owners keen to understand their own cultural signature and leadership footprints, where they sit on a spectrum and how they could sharpen their edge. In addition to developing their own better cultural outcomes, participants will be signing up to support more wide-spread positive cultural change.
10 tips for running more inclusive meetings
Due to the nature of meetings, some colleagues will melt into the background while others may take control over the majority of the conversation, and the decisions made. This can mean that not only do some team members feel unheard and undervalued, but strong ideas are lost. Find 10 tips we feel can help make your meetings not only more effective, but more inclusive.
Better decision-making: a toolkit
Despite the central role that decision-making plays in the institutional investment process, most investment professionals would, if pushed, express at least some dissatisfaction with both the process and the outcome of key decisions. We describe a range of possible responses to the challenge – these responses can be thought of as a toolkit. While this is not the most original analogy, it is probably the most apt.
Collective decision-making in action (members only)
Strong decision-making emerges when the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The central focus of the case study is how a group can effectively integrate individual thought processes, relationships, communication patterns and other aspects of interaction into superior collective judgement.