Relationships Matter

In an age of digital interaction and online meetings, sometimes you can’t beat relationship building the old-fashioned way.

I wrote this blog post on a flight home from Monaco, playground of racing car drivers, royalty and other members of the rich and famous. I know your heart is bleeding but I wasn’t there purely for pleasure — although I had a great time — or to try my luck in the casino! I was there for Fund Forum, speaking at and attending Europe’s pre-eminent tradeshow for the asset management industry.

I’ve been to many tradeshows and conferences over the years and it’s good to see how these have evolved. Programs are shorter and more impactful; there is a greater understanding of what is going on in the outside world and the challenges faced by investors; and, overall the mood is one of maximizing time and “we’re here to work”. In fact, I’m already getting a hard time from my Marketing team about writing up my notes!

Being asked to speak and address a group audience is a great honor and I very much enjoyed my time on stage discussing “seven trends shaping the investment management industry” (perhaps a future blog topic). However, the real value from these trips is in being able to spend time with clients, prospects, vendors, and even competitors.

I frequently say that we deliver both commodity products and increasingly sophisticated solutions — but the bottom line is that we are a?service business?and a client-led organization. To carry out that mission, we have to meet each other!

One-to-one discussions, face-to-face meetings and chance encounters — I don’t think you can beat it. You can pick up so much from a handshake or direct eye contact — I know many a university thesis has been written about the importance of body language, voice tonality and micro-expressions.

To a younger audience, perhaps these views will come across as slightly old fashioned. I admit I come from an era that was pre-email, pre-mobile phone — a time when stocks were held in certificated form and coupons needed to be clipped!

I’m not suggesting we can go back to those days at all — the value of technology is self-evident. During the pandemic in particular we all took a great leap forward. If you would have told me beforehand that we would be conducting new business presentations exclusively online and winning new clients without having met directly, I wouldn’t have believed you. But necessity is the mother of invention and during that two-year period the world adapted, we moved online and got the job done.

Today, we can embrace and enjoy the best of both worlds. We have the tech tools that facilitate easy client and staff connectivity, running in tandem with a business world that recognizes the inherent value of building relationships through direct interaction.

And it’s not just externally where this holds true. A big part of my role is meeting our Northern Trust teams all around the world. I hold and attend in excess of 40 staff Town Halls a year. One of the most frequent questions I receive is around tips for career progression — again a whole blog topic in itself.

For me, the number one piece of advice I would give to anyone starting off in our industry would be network, network, network! With more time spent out of the office and working from home these days, you’ve got to put in the extra effort when you are in the office to forge and nurture relationships, both new and old.

In all honestly, I would go further and recommend spending a greater proportion of time in the office if you possibly can. Those networking opportunities and chance encounters I mentioned earlier really do have the power to kickstart or accelerate career journeys. I can only speak from experience and I know they benefitted my development. Arguably, it’s even more important today — we live in an interdependent, integrated world and the best businesses are the ones that find ways to connect the dots for themselves and for their clients. Try and be in the middle of that. (By the way, if you combine that with spending some time working abroad and experiencing a different culture, your career and personal growth is likely to be exponential).

So as I headed home from Fund Forum and began looking through my notes, I could quickly tell this was a trip worth making and time well spent. Tangible new leads and immediate business opportunities will satisfy my Sales and Marketing teams, but reconnecting in person with friends, colleagues and peers helps me stay in touch with what’s really happening, what I need to think about next, and provides business insights beyond anything anyone will ever receive from reading an article, or even a blog…