InvestOpsDaily
in-depth
THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF INVESTOPS 2019
TECHNOLOGY
Investment operations teams take a new
shape in technology-driven era
NEW CULTURAL CHALLENGES AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL NATURE OF THE BUSINESS HAS LED TO DIFFERENT PERSONNEL
WITHIN BUY-SIDE OPERATIONS TEAMS.
A
sset management operations teams are
facing up to a new era of automation and
technology innovations by changing their re-
cruitment patterns, according to a panel, where
one speaker claimed “the operational specialist
is a dying breed”.
Speaking at InvestOps Europe, panellists
highlighted new cultural challenges when
it comes to fostering innovation, while the
technological nature of the business has also
led to different personnel within buy-side
operations teams.
“Certainly in my organisation, the classic
operational specialist is a dying breed,” said
Jordan O’Neill, head of operations and trea-
sury, Aspect Capital. “If I look at my team they
are more business analysts and process engi-
neers, they need to be able to sit and talk with
the technologists. What we’ve seen work best
is whereby the business user and developer
are away in a room.
“We tend to not hire too many operation-
al specialists these days, we look more for
generalists with broader skill sets who can
lend their hand well to taking a process and
condensing it down.
“The old school operationalist that deals
with recs [reconciliations] and break chasing is
a dying breed.”
With technology and data becoming such
essential components in the investment
operations processes at asset management
firms, being able to understand the business
alongside the technology is becoming crucial.
While automation is slowly creeping into
the formerly-manual processes of investment
managers, people remain crucial to their busi-
ness, however, it’s the skillset of those indi-
viduals that is changing according to experts.
“One of the two best employees I ever had
came out of the ninth grade of public school
and was so tremendously good at coping with
the processes,” said Jacob Elsborg, director of
pension and investment operations at ATP.
“Today I can see the business process man-
agement people are engineers and economics
[specialists] that are moving in that direction.
To be quite honest, if I was asked would I em-
ploy people with limited skills from school, I
would say they would have to prove they could
handle technology.”
Meanwhile, in the keynote opening to the
InvestOps conference, Marcel Prins, chief
operating officer at APG Asset Management,
emphasised the importance of addressing
cultural challenges in order to successfully
innovate.
“Throwing money at an innovation lab and
not going anywhere is not helping. Don’t con-
fuse movement with progress,” said Prins.
“The challenge of the mastery of technology
is not a technology challenge… it is a people
and a cultural challenge. If you master the
people and culture by being open in your eco-
system approach, relentlessly driving value in
the sense that you have people thinking that
they are contributing to the bottom line of an
asset management company.
“It’s all about empowerment, the responsi-
bility of us in this room is to make sure that
people feel empowered. It’s our job to create
the circumstance that people can do their job.”
Wrap-up
globalcustodian.com
11