People are at the heart of how investment organisations respond to an increasingly complex and changing environment. To maximise impact, leaders need to build strong, aligned organisations where culture enables individuals and teams to perform at their best.
Organisational culture is increasingly a source of competitive edge, with teams becoming the primary unit of value creation. This hub brings together Thinking Ahead Institute research on these themes, including culture, decision-making, team effectiveness, diversity and inclusion, and the evolving capabilities required of investment organisations.
The materials are available in a range of formats, from in-depth research papers to shorter insights, podcasts and videos.
Increasingly, performance depends on the strength of the organisation — how effectively people, culture and systems come together to deliver outcomes.
Marisa Hall, Head of the Thinking Ahead Institute
Featured
The Investment Professional 2.0
Thinking Ahead’s investment Professional 2.0 work starts from the recognition that the world investors operate in has changed faster than the profession itself. Explore the T-shaped and Pi-shaped professional in this article.
Culture – the organisational superpower
This paper captures the latest Power of Culture study findings. It is focused on the asset owner model (with reference to mainstream and alternatives asset managers), purpose, sustainability, Superteams and change.
Better decision-making: a toolkit
Most investment professionals would express 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.
The Investment Association (IA), alongside The Thinking Ahead Institute, published an industry-wide data report on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) data in the UK investment management industry. It provides an overview of diversity data collection, including a demographic snapshot of the industry’s workforce.
The investment industry and its connected parts are part of a system where everything connects and behaviours matter. On this hub are a collection of reports, multimedia and articles that are relevant for these extraordinary times.
Research journey
In 2015, we started exploring leadership, decision making and culture’s contribution to the performance of asset managers and owners. Since then we have developed a culture framework and model, formalised in The impact of culture on institutional investors paper, and explored the important role of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In 2019, we launched the Power of Culture industry study, conducted over three years, to include 28 investment organisations and 550 business leaders. More recently we launched The Power of Teams study to better understand how cognitive diversity and collective intelligence play in building so-called Superteams.
Culture
Future of work
Leadership and decision making
Focus on: Superteams
Our industry has developed a dependency on teams’ collective intelligence. However, there needs to be more focus on the important dynamics of teamwork and team thought, to develop Superteams that can deliver exceptional accomplishments and outcomes. Learn how strong culture and governance can turn your good teams into Superteams here.
Teams are the primary unit of value creation in the investment industry.
Marisa Hall
