Hit Refresh

Its inspiring & rare to find a CEO who is willing to expose his vulnerabilities in the open and be comfortable to talk about his career mistakes. I am referring to Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella comments made about pay gaps between men and women. After this mix-up, he sends an email to all employees sharing this conference video and accepts that he answered the pay gap question incorrectly and that it helped him learn about his unconscious bias. Integrity personified… You can read many similar instances in Hit Refresh about Mr.Nadella’s empathetic leadership style.

I found lot of parallel traits that can be related to the industry i am employed for over 15 years. Asset Management Industry (Mutual Fund) can learn a lot of from Satya Nadella’s interplay insights between empathy and technology. IT Industry thrives on “innovation” and not on “tradition”. On the contrary, Asset Management industry shines on tradition / past performance, however is it prudent for an Industry for following “tradition” in all departments? Given the background of change in technology and customer experience. I am referring to the data exchange between investors, distributors, registrar and transfer agents and Asset Management companies. Unfortunately “tradition” seems to still thrive in this case. I am excluding Advisory and Fund Management but highlighting transaction acceptance, processing and record keeping.

Microsoft CEO urges policy reforms to create a regulatory environment that promotes innovative and confident adoption and use of tech. While data privacy and security are always key concern, they also need to be balanced against the demand for data to flow more freely between the various services. Now let's switch back to Asset Management Industry. It's frustrating to see Independent Financial Advisors struggle to get an “one view” of their business / assets. Software service providers have no choice but to use a crude method to reconcile the data as the data flow is not via APIs.  In other words, transaction feed / technology stack  is not consistent.

While the author has underscored the technology trends beyond cloud computing, but Asset Management industry is still hesitant to adopt Cloud. As a digital admirer, i wonder when will we adopt latest tech to benefit Mutual Fund distributors and in turn minimise the friction points. It's worth highlighting about evolution of “technology diffusion” by Economist Diego Comin. This economist has studied the evolution of tech diffusion over last two centuries in countries across the world. On an average, countries tend to adopt a new tech about 45 years after its invention, although this time lag has shortened.  If we were to apply this learning and track the birth of cloud computing.  Microsoft Azure came into existence in 2008 and Asset Management industry in India is yet to adopt this. My independent opinion, adopting Cloud computing will help in redefining the architecture and sharing data will be seamless within the ecosystem.

Friends or Frenemies - the examples mentioned in this section resembles similar to Asset Management Industry ecosystem. In India, there are over 42 Asset management companies and 4 major back office (RTA) service providers.  Data compiling from these 4 registrar and transfer agents for an Independent Financial Advisor is lengthy and time consuming task.  Switch back to smart phone and Platform. Microsoft software deployed on its competitor phone - an Apple iPhone is a good example. The author ensures no matter which phone or platform customer chooses, Microsoft products can be used. It's a great example of coexist and compete. Hope we learn from this and develop healthy and sharing ecosystem.

Hit Refresh is a must read for business leaders, as Satya writes it is impossible to be an empathetic leader sitting in an office behind a computer screen all day.  CEO needs to be out in the world.  I am optimistic that very soon Asset Management industry will "hit refresh" button to upgrade record keeping infrastructure to deliver better experience for distributors / partners.