Nicsa, Author at Nicsa - Page 12 of 37

On the Clock to Advance DEI

Nicsa’s Strategic Leadership Forum wouldn’t be complete without a deep dive into building genuinely equitable workplaces — after all, DEI has to be practiced at the top, not just on the front lines.

Cassie McCarthy, Manager, EY’s Wealth and Asset Management Consulting Practice, moderated an important conversation between leaders from Northern Trust, SEI, and the Diversity Project North America. The session highlighted how organizations have begun to mobilize DEI efforts while exploring Nicsa’s annual DEI Perception Study.

Deidra Jenkins, SVP, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer - Americas, Northern Trust, focused on three strategic priorities within her firm:

Driving accountability. “In driving accountability, the focus is on a DEI governance model that helps us institutionalize DEI in our organization and measure progress,” Jenkins said.

Reporting goals. “We have created a dashboard for our organizations that is very comprehensive, looking at hiring, retention, promotions, manager-initiated moves, and supplemental data.”

Measuring representation. “We measure representation, but not only at one point in time,” Jenkins said. “We are looking at our progress over a number of years and really understanding organizational trends.”

Womack, Managing Director, Investment Products & Personalization, Independent Advisor Solutions, SEI, said his firm’s strategy is built on three key areas:

Recruitment and retention. “Early on, we focused on connecting with outside groups as pipeline opportunities for diverse audiences to engage with SEI,” Womack said. “The candidacy that we see now for different roles in the organization has grown significantly, and we are having greater impact in different areas of the community.”

Employee development. SEI uses education to create an inclusive environment where individuals can show up and be themselves, both with clients and internally. “When you think about development beyond that, growth, skills, and retention are important in creating mentorship opportunities for diverse populations,” Womack said.

Evolution of culture. “We are thinking about how we can further evolve our culture, again, to create space for people to show up and be themselves,” Womack said. “That happens through supportive managers and employees across various needs from a development perspective.”

Justine Phoenix, Head of Diversity Project North America, Nicsa, provided an overview of the Diversity Project initiative, which she heads.

“The Diversity Project of North America is organized under Nisca,” she said. “Our goal is to collaborate, educate, and offer support for our members, who all have their own DEI journeys.”

On the Clock: Nicsa’s Annual DEI Perception Study

Panelists also explored Nicsa’s Annual DEI Perception Study, which found, among other takeaways, that DEI priorities should be set at the highest levels of the organization, factored into every business decision, and supported via dedicated resources.

The study also found that perceptions vary widely amongst demographic groups in the industry, making it difficult to create a sense of shared culture.

When asked about roadblocks to increasing diversity in leadership, 26% of respondents pointed to “corporate culture or environment” as the largest obstacle to progress.

“I’m not surprised about that — culture is how we get things done in an organization,” Jenkins said. “Advancing culture is one of Northern Trust’s key strategic priorities. I am sure many firms have done this already, but we have unconscious bias training for all of our partners. We had about a 99% completion rate there and held additional training for our managers.”

“In 2020, right after the murder of George Floyd, Northern Trust created our DE&I Knowledge Center,” Jenkins continued. “That was developed because many of our partners wanted to understand the root cause of the racial challenges and issues going on at that time.”

Phoenix said the perception study revealed that internal and external stakeholders are looking for a clear understanding of data parameters and how firms will expand collection and tracking efforts.

“We have to make sure we are transparent about where that data is going, especially when you start to talk about the LGBTQ+ and disability communities, where it can be a little more challenging to get voluntary data,” Jenkins said.

It is essential that leaders explain that data is being used to enable change and advance careers within their organizations. “When we start being more transparent about that, we will create a safe space where people can trust organizations, and we can move forward,” Jenkins added.

May contain forward-looking statements subject to various uncertainties. Personal views and observations of individuals contained herein are as of the date of the live event or written material and do not necessarily reflect the views of Nicsa or its member organizations. Nothing herein is intended to be or should be construed as legal advice. Contact your own counsel in order to obtain legal advice regarding these or any other matters. The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation of best practices.

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#DiversityandInclusion

Several CEOs spearheading the future of asset management kicked off the last day of Nicsa’s Strategic Leadership Forum with a fireside chat covering the industry’s hottest topics. The event was moderated by Kevin Mahn, President and Chief Investment Officer, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management, and featured leadership from Allspring Global Investments, BNY Mellon, and Columbia Threadneedle Investments.

Joe Sullivan, Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Allspring Global Investments, said that we have entered an era of unpredictability due to record-setting inflation levels, uncertainty around Federal Reserve rate hikes, and the unfortunate Russia-Ukraine war.

“These significant events are new to many in the industry and may also cause a lot of our investors to rethink the paradigms that they have embedded into their investment process that may need to change and evolve with the fact that the world, in my view, is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially unstable,” Sullivan said.

Stephanie Pierce, Chief Executive Officer, Dreyfus, Mellon and Exchange-Traded Funds, BNY Mellon, found silver linings in the chaos:

“Nobody learns anything from a good market environment,” she said. “In terms of cultivating the next generation, these are the environments where they’re going to really accelerate their learning and maturity as investors.”

The Post-Pandemic Hybrid Environment

Jim Bumpus, Head of Intermediary Markets, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, said his firm has long proven itself successful when it comes to in-person service — and that the industry has made great strides working in an all-remote capacity over the past few years.

“What we haven’t proven as an industry is that we can work well in a hybrid world,” he said. “I think that's trickier from an efficiency standpoint.”

He said financial and registered investment advisors are dealing with different definitions when it comes to hybrid working environments.

“How much are they going back to work? What are the different approaches their companies are using? It's kind of all over the place,” he said. “We have to know our clients. We have to be profiling and re-profiling them in times like these, capturing their preferences so that we can, as a firm, serve them well. Our team has gotten better at this, but it’s a continuous process.”

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Sullivan said that the asset management industry needs to convert talk into action in terms of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I).

“We will solve this if we choose to be intentional about it,” he said. “We have to choose to be

intentional about when we recruit, how we recruit, where we recruit. It's not falling back into what is comfortable.”

He stressed the importance of not overlooking the “inclusion” aspect of DE&I. “What I have found over the years is that we could make progress on the diversity part, but at the end of the day, our numbers would not improve. We declared victory by having them walk in the door and

we weren't paying attention to the fact that they were walking out the door because they did not feel included.”

Pierce pointed to BNY Mellon’s recent survey of 8,000 men and women across 16 countries, in addition to 100 asset managers with a total of approximately $60 trillion in assets.

“Women, as you know, don't invest at the same rate as men,” she said. “The question is why — and the ‘why’ that we found was that women don't feel that the industry caters to them. We did some math and found that if women invested at the same rate as men, we would see about $3.2 trillion come into the investment markets, and over half of that would go into sustainable and responsible investments.”

Almost 90% of the asset managers BNY Mellon surveyed acknowledged that their target client was a male. “The takeaway for me was that we have some work to do.”

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Industry disruption: It’s thrilling when your organization is causing it — and quite the opposite if your organization is lagging behind.

Attendees of Nicsa’s Strategic Leadership Forum got the opportunity to stay on the cutting edge by exploring the latest tech solutions, ecosystems, and configurations during a general session moderated by Phil Andriyevsky, Partner, Wealth and Asset Management, EY.

Replay Session

Sumedh Mehta, CIO, Putnam Investments, said the level of change we’ve seen in the past few years is jarring — even for the most technically advanced. “Our clients, including the younger generation that quickly adopted social media in the beginning, are seeing their world getting disrupted through some of the newer technologies like the meta-verse coming at them.”

So, where do firms start in preparing for disruption through digital transformation? Matthew Glickman, VP, Customer Product Strategy, Global Head of Financial Services of Snowflake (a cloud data platform), said it’s important to consider the value you’re bringing to your clients.

“If there’s an area in which you’re differentiating, that is where you want to focus technology and business resources,” Glickman said. “If you can, choose a best-in-class managed service in the cloud. The last two years have accelerated that [trend].”

Greg McCall, Co-Founder & President, Equity Data Science (EDS), agreed, adding that partnering with FinTech groups is generally a better idea than a firm attempting to build a system from scratch.

“For us, it's really about helping our clients better use the data that they have available to them, making better decisions, helping them understand where they succeed, where their blind spots are. Ultimately, our clients save time and reduce research and operating expenses, because we are utilizing software that matches and enhances their workflows.”

Many third-party Fintech companies employ a consumption-based revenue model, meaning that firms no longer have to make significant upfront capital expenditure (CapEx) investments in technology.

“That's a fundamental shift — you're no longer making fixed-cost commitments; you pay as you use these services,” Glickman said. “It's a less risky proposition for the buyer. It also means that companies like Snowflake and EDS have to keep innovating. We have to earn the business every day.”

Mehta said Putnam Investments has operated with an eye toward extended partnerships in the past few years. To that end, the firm helped build massfintechhub.com, a community that aims to transform financial services through rapid innovation.

“We are participating, among others, to form one place to go for creating FinTech opportunities,” Mehta said. “We have third parties, FinTech startups, academia, and the government working together for the greater good. We can't do this alone. Recognizing that, and bringing in the technologies at the right time, makes this interesting. At the end of this talk, if you do one thing, call your IT leaders, and ask for more technology at your firms."

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#Technology

The Great Reprioritization: How Industry Leaders are Transforming Challenge into Opportunity

Replay Session

Compared with the hardest-hit industries, asset management has emerged from the pandemic relatively strong — at least from a financial standpoint, according to Yariv Itah, Managing Principal at Casey Quirk, a Deloitte Business.

“The industry has not managed more assets, generated more revenue, employed more people, or paid its people as much as it has over the last couple of years,” Itah told attendees of Nicsa’s 2022 Strategic Leadership Forum on March 31.

Still, Itah, who moderated the panel, cautioned that the pandemic has caused permanent changes in terms of hiring and retention, corporate culture, and technology.

“Our staff do not necessarily want to go back to the way things were before,” he said. “Your clients like some of the Zoom-enabled interactions, so there will be fewer slots to meet in person. Technology investments have shot up in the industry as asset management firms try to become more digital, and so forth.”

With these changes in mind, thought leaders from SS&C Technologies, Franklin Templeton Investments, and MFS shared their perspectives on the pandemic-spurred structural changes that may or may not be here to stay.

“MFS is looking to have a flexible arrangement start in April, and we are very much looking forward to it,” said Rheeta Wise, President, MFS Service Center, MFS. “Think about how nice it is for all of us to be together here today,” Rheeta said. “We’re trying to help folks understand how good it feels once you make your way back to a hybrid arrangement and get that human interaction.”

When asked about red lines — structural changes a firm will not make no matter the circumstance — Allyson Whiteley, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Global Talent Management, Franklin Templeton Investments, remained open-minded.

“Jenny Johnson, our CEO, has been such a wonderful supporter of the opportunity that the pandemic and the shift in thinking has brought to the industry,” Whiteley said. “As you have probably heard her say, we believe talent can be anywhere if we challenge our own thinking and beliefs about how work used to get done. As the competition rises in this industry and the labor market stays buoyant, that’s going to help us tap into the best talent we can find.”

Whiteley pointed to the challenges inherent in managing hybrid workforces for the first time.

“You have some people physically at your side, and it will be easy to lean over to them and give them the tasks you need help with,” she said. “At the end of the day, that might come at the expense of some of the up-and-coming talent who are in a hybrid or fully remote scenario. We are on a precipice where leaders must learn to lead completely differently — and technology is a wonderful enabler in that respect. But it does not do anything if we don't use it effectively.”

To that end, Tracy Shelby, U.S. Co-Head of Global Investor and Distribution Solutions, SS&C Technologies, said his financial technology company has rolled out several tools designed to enable efficient and secure collaboration in a hybrid workplace.

“We are making sure we have technology that's going to be effective whether someone is sitting in an office or if someone is never stepping foot in an office,” Shelby said. “If you look at the underlying outsourcing business that I am responsible for, we had to invest in a lot of technology focused on better enabling the work-from-home workforce. We replaced our telephony systems with a cloud-based telephone system. As part of that, we also implemented a number of fraud detection and prevention solutions aimed to make work-from-home associates more effective in identifying potential fraud.”

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Today’s Headlines and Tomorrow’s Trends: A Look at the Industry from the Viewpoints of Broker-Dealers and Asset Managers

Nicsa members explored the here and now with an eye toward the future during the 2022 Strategic Leadership Forum (SLF) on March 30. The two-part session gave attendees the perspectives of both broker-dealers and asset managers with separate segments moderated by Sandy Bolton, Senior Advisor, FS Investments, and John Cooper, Former Head of Distribution, Morgan Stanley.

THE BROKER-DEALER PERSPECTIVE

Bolton gave attendees a look at the industry through the broker-dealer lens with a panel featuring thought leaders from Morgan Stanley, Edward Jones, and Merrill Lynch.

Mutual Fund Wrap Programs

When asked about mutual fund wrap programs, David Rosen, Managing Director, Head of Traditional Investment Products, Morgan Stanley, said that in five to 10 years, his firm aims to offer an array of strategies across every structure.

“Let the advisor, let the client pick and choose which structure fits their needs the best,” Rosen said. “Today, we certainly want to encourage innovation with our partners. We are seeing substantial growth across both separately managed accounts (SMAs) and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). We have about 700 SMA and 1,400 mutual fund strategies on the platform today, so there’s a big delta between the two. Ideally, for every mutual fund we offer, we want to have an SMA version available, assuming it's suitable within the structure.”

Steve Rueschhoff, Principal, Edward Jones, said his firm is delving into the active ETF space. “We think it’s a trend that's here to stay,” he said. “There is definitely unique client value there; there can be tax efficiency, and there can be cost structure advantages.”

However, scenarios in which there are different transaction costs for a fund versus an ETF can add complexity to recommendations — and potential for tradeoffs and conflicts, Rueschhoff said. “We made a policy decision last summer that we will have active ETFs available but only on fee-based platforms, where we are agnostic to transaction costs,” he said.

But this isn’t the end of the mutual fund, Rosen said. “The reality is, there will always be value in the wrapper, and certain strategies won't work in ETFs or SMAs. Certainly, you will start to see more development on the ETF side and strategies that make more sense for that wrapper.”

Alternative Investments

Rosen said Morgan Stanley has seen tremendous growth across its alternative investment platforms that is diverse across wrappers.

“There are a few things firms need to think about if they want to get into this business — first and foremost is brand,” he said. “A lot of traditional mutual fund shops have struggled, not all of them, but some have struggled to raise assets, so brand is critically important and being seen as the true alternative.”

Other tips include having a distinct sales team for alternative investments, having a strong track record, and providing education to advisors on the value of the business.

Anna Snider, Head of Due Diligence, CIO Office, Merrill Lynch, said her firm is committed to tripling alternative investment assets in the next few years.

“We are in the middle of a market regime change,” Snider said. “The market of a month ago is no longer here. I think the income-producing product story is here to stay, especially if beta-driven equity returns are more muted than they have been in the past. I am really excited, as someone who has been in alts for a long time, to see democratization open up. I think clients can benefit if they are used correctly, but they require so much educational expertise.”

Snider cautioned that the onus is on everyone to educate clients on risks — for example, in terms of liquidity. “It’s on the firm to ensure the financial adviser understands, it’s on the financial adviser to ensure that the client understands, and at the actual asset manager level, really being clear about all of the risks and the benefits,” she said.

Models

Many firms have recently focused on using models to help advisors scale their businesses. Rueschhoff said Edward Jones believes model adoption is the best course for advisors.

“We are trying to reinforce with our financial advisers that their value in the marketplace is not in stock picking, security selection, or portfolio construction,” he said. “Those things are table stakes, but they are commoditized and free if you know where to look in today's marketplace. Value is found in advisors developing deep personal relationships with clients, really understanding their needs, wants, wishes, and goals, and helping them achieve them. Anything we can do to scale the nuts and bolts of portfolio construction and model building, we want to do.”

Fintech

Rueschhoff started with a discussion about the tools asset managers use to streamline their workflows: “In spite of the fact that they are great tools, just taking them and introducing them into our system

creates challenges for us,” he said. “One is when you think about the governance or risk of vetting all the software … there’s an endless list of things, so be patient with us.”

As far as internal investments go, Edward Jones has publicly stated that it will invest more than a billion dollars in technology over the next 18 months. “We are making significant investments in that space right now, particularly in CRM software, financial planning software, and certainly portfolio customization

on the advisory side.”

THE ASSET MANAGER PERSPECTIVE

John Cooper, Former Head of Distribution, Morgan Stanley, gave attendees a look at the industry through the asset manager lens with a panel featuring thought-leaders from Thornburg, Invesco, and Franklin Templeton Distributors, Inc.

Mutual Fund Wrap Programs

When it comes to active and passive ETFs, Clint Harris, Head of Wealth Management Platforms and Global Consulting, Invesco, said the fully transparent wrapper may ultimately win the day.

“We have been in the fully transparent space at Invesco for 16 years. We have 15 active ETFs; four are fully transparent and relatively new,” Harris said. “As we have incubated those semi-transparent wrappers over the last couple of years, it has been positive, but I also think that we have gotten a lot more comfortable with a fully transparent structure.”

Harris said that putting an active product in a different wrapper will not necessarily make it more appealing to a client. “If a product’s not selling in a mutual fund, you are not going to put it in an ETF wrapper and suddenly it’s going to sell. The value proposition has to be there for the client.”

Roger Paradiso, Head of Product Solutions, Franklin Templeton Distributors, Inc., touched on the time and effort that goes into mutual fund conversions.

“At some point in the future it may become a simpler process, one that is going to make more sense, but at this time ... most of the new product development is happening in the ETF space, not in mutual funds.”

Alternative Investments

Harris said that conversations about alternative investments have begun to dwarf the others he’s having with major firms. Most interesting to him are not the products — but the delivery.

“I feel that the back end, the post-investment operational element, is ripe for disruption and an improved client experience,” Harris said. “A lot of my conversations right now are about how to bring private market capability on [block]chain so that you can leverage distributive ledger technologies to improve the operational efficiency, create a better client experience, and take a lot of the pain out of the administration of private markets. When you do that, then you’re going to scale.”

Paradiso said Franklin Templeton is all-in when it comes to alternative investments; it's a billion-dollar business for the firm.

“It’s a growing area within Franklin Templeton — a very focused area, and an exciting one that is starting to take hold — and it happens from liquid alts all the way up to the private placement world,

and everything in between.”

Models

Erin Carney, Head of Strategic Development, Thornburg, said her firm specializes in international and global equities, global fixed income, and multi-asset solutions.

“As we have thought about creating models, we would have to involve third parties with passive solutions, et cetera, and that is potentially interesting for us,” Carney said. “Where we have effectively created them is in multi-asset solutions. We have an income-based, multi-asset solution and real return-tilted multi-asset solution that is a little bit newer.”

“We are more likely to be a component of other people's models as a third-party participant, in part because the investment strategies that we have created tend to be highly active, focused, and produce different outcomes,” Carney continued. “So if you put them in a portfolio context, they will help the overall asset allocation that way, because it is a different idiosyncratic outcome for clients overall.”

Fintech

Carney said Thornburg has dedicated a tremendous amount of time and capital to fintech over the last six years.

“It’s starting to become incorporated into the fabric of Thornburg — in how we approach clients and how we serve up content that is important to advisors, or anyone that approaches our website, in meaningful ways. We want them to become more engaged with who we are, what we’re doing, what our ideas are, and how our investments reflect that.”

Harris observed that fintech themes spanned nearly all topics discussed during the two-part Nicsa event that day, from managed accounts and customization to alternative investments.

“As very regulated businesses, I do not know that you will always get the most out-of-the-box thinking inside your firm to be as disruptive as you need to, considering the problems we are trying to solve,” he said. “That is why you are seeing firms make [tech] acquisitions — you are buying the intellectual freedom and capital from outside the organization and trying to bring it in.”

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Nicsa’s Strategic Leadership Forum will take place March 30-April 1 at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. Here, thought leaders within the asset management industry will convene to discuss the top issues facing today’s asset management industry, including hiring and retention trends, product and distribution opportunities, DEI priorities, the political landscape, industry disruptors, and more. Here’s a sneak peek at this year’s SLF speaker lineup:

With perspectives spanning the industry—asset managers, broker dealers, technology and professional service firms—this year’s SLF will unite industry participants from across business verticals, and guide them in their strategic business planning.

Highlights to include CNBC’s Sue Herera; Citi’s Bill Rys; Project Healthy Minds’ Phil Schermer; and a Face the Membership session with Columbia Threadneedle’s Scott Cuoto and BNY Mellon’s Stephanie Pierce.

For an overview of the full line-up of thought leaders ready to take the SLF stage, click here.

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Boston, MA – February 3, 2022 — Nicsa’s annual Strategic Leadership Forum, a premier industry event tackling business critical issues facing the global asset management industry, will take place March 30 to April 1 at the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Whether in person or via live-streaming content, participants will reunite and uncover new opportunities for 2022 and beyond. The event is designed for asset managers, broker dealers, banks, and professional service and consulting firms strategically positioning their firms for the future.

The event’s forward-looking themes include democratization of financial offerings, the blurring of public versus private markets, the evolution of distribution models, digital disruptors, hiring and retention strategies, and more. View the 2022 SLF Agenda for an up-to-date view of sessions and speakers.

Sue Herera, CNBC’s Anchor at Large, will offer a keynote address to the Nicsa community. “The First Lady of Wall Street,” Ms. Herera helped launch CNBC in 1989 and played a significant role in the network’s growth over the ensuing 30+ years. Read more.

The event will also feature “Nicsa Gives Back” events, including:

The Annual Blackwell Scholarship Charity Golf Tournament at the renowned TPC Sawgrass in support of outstanding students of the Nicsa family. Read more.

A high-energy and hands-on meal packaging event in support of U.S. Hunger’s vision of a hunger-free world. Read more.

A Nicsa Gives Back reception and networking event.

“We are extremely excited to be hosting our event in person, and we look forward to providing a platform where members can re-connect and engage in active exploration of the future of asset management,” said Jim Fitzpatrick, President and CEO of Nicsa.

In addition to its educational content and charity events, Nicsa’s SLF will feature experiences focused on building and strengthening relationships with industry peers. Attendees can explore various tastings, a specialty coffee bar, golf simulator, and headshot lounge and more onsite at the Nicsa Hub.

Nicsa will consider complimentary media registration to editors and reporters with valid press credentials. Submit inquiries here.

About Nicsa

Nicsa is a not-for-profit trade association striving to connect all facets of the global asset management industry in order to develop, share, implement, and advance leading practices. For over fifty years, Nicsa has promoted an open and collaborative environment, where members’ and partners’ deep expertise and unique perspectives have come together to help strategically implement and support the industry’s most vital issues. Click here for more information about membership.

Nicsa aims to help firms operating in all segments of the global asset management industry meet the changing needs of their clients by aligning and educating industry participants through formal education programs, interactive forums, networking opportunities, and initiatives such as the Diversity Project North America. The Diversity Project’s goal is to accelerate progress towards a diverse and inclusive culture in the asset management industry to deliver the best possible results for clients, reflect the society we serve, and ensure long-term business sustainability. Click here for more information on Nicsa’s Diversity Project North America initiative.

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Sharing forward-thinking ideas that help firms advance equitable opportunity and support business results is a crucial mission of the Diversity Project North America. It’s also the impetus behind the Diversity Project’s Next Practices Committee.

The Next Practices Committee regularly seeks input from its member firms, as well as from external experts with different perspectives.

To share her own unique insights and strategies, guest speaker Ayeshah Johnson, Workplace Strategist Specializing in Diversity & Inclusion, was recently invited to lead a Next Practices round table with committee members focused on developing, monitoring, and maintaining DEI practices.

During the roundtable, Johnson, who serves as Senior Director of Diversity & Inclusion at the law firm Goulston & Storrs, identified overlaps between DEI in the legal and asset management industries, highlighted areas for improvement, and pointed to opportunities for expansion.

Understand the Importance of Metrics and Standards

“Your industry is developing a common language around DEI that helps pull everyone together — and that’s definitely something happening in the legal industry as well,” Johnson said. “You have to have a common understanding to cement yourselves around the idea of advancing D&I.”

Avoid proceeding with little to no data and relying on anecdotes, Johnson said. Instead, she recommends building a common language by collecting information from surveys, such as Nicsa’s Annual DEI Perception Study, and using results to identify metrics and standards.

One standard her law firm employs is the Mansfield Rule, a program designated for law firms that measures whether the firm is offering traditionally underrepresented groups career-boosting opportunities (such as leadership roles). The beauty of the Mansfield rule, she said, is that new iterations are continually designed to build momentum.

The Mansfield 4.0 Certified Plus 2021 designation from Diversity Lab indicates that a firm met or surpassed the consideration requirements for certification and reached a 30 percent diverse representation threshold. Johnson said that while the Mansfield Role was created for the legal sector, the asset management industry has an opportunity to implement similar standards and certifications that would “set the tone for what people can expect when they're working with your organization.”

Johnson cautioned against becoming overconfident when developing an organizational DEI framework.

“Keeping a critical eye on the results of your processes and results — even on how meetings are managed and facilitated — is really important,” she said. “If you take your eye off of the ball, there’s often a certain dissonance between what people are told will happen and what is actually happening. Keeping a critical eye can help to alleviate some of that dissonance.”

In addition, she said leaders should continually analyze the DEI data they collect and listen carefully to what underrepresented groups share. “Failure to do so will will lead to certain voices being excluded — even though they were asked for their input.”

Combat the Slow Start

Another common stumbling block Johnson has observed with DEI initiatives is a lack of focus and consistency. This leads to a situation where organizations recognize the need for change but make slow progress.

“There’s a tendency to start and restart,” she said. “If you're identifying core areas you want to work on, stick with them, and keep building momentum,” she said.

While structure is vital in developing a DEI framework, asset managers must allow for flexibility and creativity within traditional business structures for their efforts to succeed. Failure to do so can slow or even stall gains in diversity.

“Another thing that I’ve seen that frustrates D&I efforts is choosing structure over D&I,” Johnson said. “D&I will often run up against process and structure when what we need in the space is creativity, innovation, and taking what we know from our surveys, taking the information that we've already gathered, and putting it to good use,” Johnson said.

Squeezing DEI concepts into existing structures — a “Band-Aid approach” — rarely works. Often, firms must deconstruct and reimagine systems. To streamline the process, Johnson suggested setting a firm expectation that DEI initiatives and structural change go hand in hand.

“There will be some movement; there will be reimagining structural needs to make room for what’s important in the D&I space,” she said.

Leaders who are unaware or unengaged with DEI initiatives also create points of failure.

“I’ve seen the effort to infuse D&I into every aspect of the business work well,” Johnson said. “That also means there has to be some expectation that leaders, particularly middle management, engage with D&I in different ways.”

Hone Your Decision-Making Skills

Johnson said that part of creating workplace change is considering how you arrive at decisions — especially when those decisions impact an underrepresented employee’s career development and trajectory. At Goulston & Storrs, Johnson developed a decision-making process she calls The Pause.

“The quickest decision is often the easiest to make,” she said. “The point is to pause the decision-making process before decisions are made so that everyone's on the same page. Decisions can become routine after a while. Thinking broadly about where you want to go before you start on the journey can tether the operation of unconscious bias.”

Johnson said that it’s important to identify different types of bias and allow space for those biases to be interrupted. For example, she said, it’s important to make sure the voices of marginalized people are not drowned out, even when we are making what feels like real strides toward progress. For example, “when we’re thinking about how hiring impacts women, we’re not thinking how hiring impacts Asian women, how it impacts white women, how it impacts LGBTQ women. When we say ‘women,’ who are we really talking about? We have to dig deeper into thinking about the challenges all women face.”

For more information about Nicsa and its Diversity Project North America initiative, please visit nicsa.org.

Note: Observations contained in this work represent the best thoughts of the individuals comprising committees and/or speaking panels; they do not necessarily reflect the views of Nicsa or any of its member organizations. Nothing herein is intended to be or should be construed as legal advice. You should contact your own counsel in order to obtain legal advice regarding these or any other matters.

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Boston, MA – Jan 26, 2022 – One of CNN’s most dynamic thought leaders will address attendees of Nicsa’s 2022 Strategic Leadership Forum, taking place in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida from March 30 – April 1.

Sue Herera, Anchor at Large, has more than 30 years with CNBC. Nicknamed “The First Lady of Wall Street,” she helped launch CNBC in 1989 and played a significant role in the network’s growth over the ensuing 30+ years.

She has anchored many of CNBC’s programs, including Power Lunch (2003 – 2015) and Business Center, CNBC’s first daily program broadcast from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, as well as Nightly Business Report, the evening program produced by CNBC for public television.

Industry participants are encouraged to join Nicsa for this exclusive opportunity to hear Ms. Herera’s keynote address to the asset management industry and engage with her on top-of-mind trends impacting industry leaders.

For more information about the 2022 Strategic Leadership Forum, a full list of event speakers and a preview the agenda can be found here.

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A Guest Blog by State Street | ALFI Member | Diversity Project North America Member

Abdel Hmitti, Senior Vice President, Head of EMEA Private Equity & Real Assets Fund Services

Joshua Lovell, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Transfer Agency Operations

Every generation faces a new set of social and economic conditions. They take on the reins handed down to them, but their journey does not always follow the old path. Evolving to meet the needs of a new environment is a huge part of growth. Quite similarly, the vision for inclusion and diversity at its inception was very different from what it is today. From focussing on overcoming racial and gender bias to now nurturing equal opportunities for people and employees globally, organizational values behind inclusion, diversity and equity (ID&E) have continued to evolve over the years.

The old challenges exist but while we address them, the new challenges of a new era and workforce cannot be overlooked. Millennials and Gen Z, for instance, are two of the most diverse generations. Inclusion and diversity was part of their culture at school, their neighborhoods and their social groups. They did not need the workplace to teach them diversity and inclusion. On the contrary, they understand more clearly what it means – a diverse workforce is an innovative one, where people understand challenges and face them to find solutions with the best possible outcomes for everyone involved.

In this changing approach to the understanding of inclusion, diversity and equity, whose role is to set an example and create an inclusive workplace? While leaders set the tone and make an effort to implement ID&E policies from the top to the junior staff, millennials strongly believe that employees at all levels should have the possibility to take positive actions and influence meaningful changes. It is the pervasive feeling of belonging, which leads to contribution, that lies at the very heart of their definition of an inclusive workspace.

Undeniably, millennials expect organizations to implement intentional actions, not random ID&E events. It can be achieved by inviting employees to the conversations while planning activities so the ideas and the onus are both on individual and public commitments. Be it ID&E networking forums, working groups or townhalls with leadership, transparent internal communication, mentoring and reverse mentoring sessions to create permanent collaboration between junior and senior employees as well as to bring different perspectives to everyday tasks. ID&E policies must be real, not only words on the paper.

In many ways, one of the other greatest allies and the main drivers for inclusion and diversity is technology. Thanks to hybrid working, our hiring processes have expanded significantly into other cities and far-flung places giving the companies access to broader and more diverse talent pool. Millennials treat the internet as a trigger for accelerating globalization as well as a medium for shared experiences - we can have so many things in common, although we come from different backgrounds. Even with technology creating new avenues, there still exist gaps that arise from differences in people, customs and cultures.

One of the things I always look forward to understanding is how we can extend this atmosphere of equity in the asset management industry. At State Street, the conversations are constant and the outcomes are palpable. Case in point, we recently announced strategic engagements with leading industry and education-focused organizations that advocate for and support the advancement of Black and Latinx professionals in financial services, as part of our 10 Actions to address racism and inequality in the workplace.

Moreover, State Street is a founding member of the Diversity Project North America (DPNA) which mission is to advance ID&E within our industry’s workforces, leadership and corporate culture. The DPNA recently released the results of a survey of over 1200 industry professionals. One of the key findings of the Nicsa Annual DEI Perception Report was that differences of perceptions among demographic groups suggests people’s experience in the industry vary widely which can make it difficult to create a sense of shared culture.

The report noted that establishing a strong culture that emphasizes the importance of diversity and equity and fosters inclusivity and belonging can be a differentiator in retaining top talent. For organizations seeking to foster diverse talent from within and attract it from outside, keeping a sharp eye on whether culture is established, understood, and experienced in shared ways across employee groups is critical to success. Leaders who recognize talent diversity and engagement as core to executing on long-term business strategies, both to enable the innovation necessary to keep up with change and to attract and retain key talent, will yield a differentiated and more authentic culture.

Our ID&E journey is an important point to keep alive as we indisputably continue to evolve under ever-changing social and economic conditions.

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