InvestOpsDaily
editorial
THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF INVESTOPS 2019
Step back front-office, this
decade belongs to ops
T
his is the decade where operations becomes sexy,” was the closing remark
of Vanguard’s head of global investment operations, James Kearney, on
undoubtedly one of the best panel discussions of InvestOps Europe 2019.
And who says it can’t be? After all, in a conference that showcased the far-reaching
capabilities of artificial intelligence and other new technologies, the middle- and
back-office of investment managers are set to be transformed in the coming years by
a wave of innovation and unique individual talent, if these experts are to be believed.
The technology-driven and automated utopia being touted certainly adds to the
appeal of working in investment operations – that is if there are any jobs left after the
deployment of humanoids.
Culturally, there’s even talk of ping-pong tables and coffee bars in offices in order to
motive and lure in the next generation of talent.
And as BlackRock’s Lou Rosato said, the world’s largest investment manager is also
steering its finest talent towards middle- and back-office roles as well as front-office
trading positions.
While regulation, Brexit and fee pressures don’t fall under the ‘sexy’ category, these
topics were largely shelved this year, in favour of more forward and innovative look-
ing discussions.
Data management was certainly not sidelined however, and underpinned many of
the conversations. Essentially, data is important, everyone’s on a data journey and an
effective data management solution is critical. Unfortunately, there’s little new with
data, just a reconfirmation that it’s an important topic to asset managers across all
parts of the chain.
Two presentations from Matthew Griffin and Anu George, painted an eye-opening
portrait of the future in their respective sessions, as we saw the potential of tech-
nology playing a role in gene replacement, holograms, mind-reading – apparently
one day in the not-so-distant future you’ll be able to live-stream your thoughts to
YouTube. Not relevant for investment ops, but still pretty cool anyway.
The most interesting theme of this year’s event really was around the personnel
within the operations teams of now and in decades to come.
Some said roles are changing, that there are no more operations specialists, just
generalists. Others point to an influx of engineers and technologists working along-
side business experts in years to come.
Either way, everyone agreed that we need to pave the way for innovation through
diversity of opinions and a new breed of talent.
I’ll leave you with one of the first quotes of the entire conference from the opening
keynote, whereby Marcel Prins, chief operating officer at APG Asset Management,
looked to impart some wisdom on a sea of investment operations heads from around
the world.
“The challenge of the mastery of technology is not a technology challenge, it is a
people and a cultural challenge,” he said. “By being open in your ecosystem ap-
proach, have people thinking that they are adding to the bottom line of an asset
management company empowers them.
“It’s all about empowerment, the responsibility 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.”
Jonathan Watkins
Managing Editor,
Global Custodian
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INVESTOPS DAILY