Technology Was a Headache for Allocators. The Pandemic Turned it Into a Migraine.
A cheeky interpretation of investment office problems
“it’s the engines captain she can’t take much more of this “.
- Scotty
Long-term investment offices often suffer from endemic technology and operations processes. Some are cognizant of the problem; others bury their head in the sand and hide behind a veil of “busy-ness.” For the latter group, there are some sure signs that the problem is present and serious. With the arrival of COVID, problems have become even more apparent.
IT’S LONELY AT THE TOP: Do you feel you have enough people in your investment office? You have more than $700MM of assets per full-time investment officer. You are understaffed and overworked.
Clinical evidence 1: in doing the mental math you included your operations folks in the denominators to lower the AUM/employee number.
Pandemic kicker: Being sheltered at home all the time makes it even lonelier at the top.
HIGH MAN-MACHINE RATIO: Not counting Microsoft platform, count how many technologies you are using in-house. If there are more names of technologies than team members, you have a problem.
