The Thinking Ahead Institute was formed in 2015 to address the main investment industry issues, including culture and leadership and one of our first research papers was about culture in institutional investment. Since then our members have used the research to measure and manage their cultures. Specifically, one of our members – WTW – has used the research to develop its manager research culture assessment framework, designed to assess and select asset managers based on how they deliver value to their employees and clients and how their leadership provide cultural guidance and oversight.
Following in-depth research into effective culture in investment organisations we are offering culture assessments for asset managers and asset owners keen to understand their own cultural signature and leadership footprints and how they could sharpen their edge. In addition to developing their own better cultural outcomes, participants will be signing up to support more wide-spread positive cultural change. This can be achieved as new awareness is created about the power of culture to support greater purpose, innovation and sustainability in the investment industry, while highlighting diversity and inclusion as a cultural-edge opportunity.
These assessments help:
- Leadership improve their vocabulary and narrative on culture
- Make the link between strategy and culture more tangible and achievable through dialogue with the Institute team
- Explore how greater organisational purpose can be part of the culture and vision conversation
- Discover opportunities for cultural innovation, particularly around diversity and inclusion.
The assessments explore individual organisations’ beliefs using our proprietary framework and survey to engage senior leadership and derive their beliefs about culture. With this data, we will produce a customised culture dashboard report and use it to give 1-2-1 feedback that helps explore the organisation’s cultural state and aspirations.
Our recent white paper, entitled Culture – the organisational superpower, contains findings from our Power of Culture studies and includes analysis and narrative on the state of culture in the investment industry and its influences, opportunities and challenges.
For more information please enquire here.
Related content
Video: watch the power of culture summit 2021 recording
Podcast: Culture in the investment industry
Article: What have we learnt about effective culture at investment organisations?
Article: Raising our game: from gender diversity to embracing whole identity
Article: The asset owner of tomorrow
Article: Culture can be a measurable edge for investment organisations
Article: Create psychological safe zones to improve collective decision-making
Speech: Culture and leadership
Related papers
Research paper: Culture – the organisational superpower
Research paper: Culture as a measurable edge
The power of culture summit
Further reading
The power of culture whitepaper
This whitepaper builds on the The impact of culture on institutional investors research and contains the findings of The power of culture study, which involved 15 asset managers and asset owners. These leader organisations joined the study in various ways to better understand their own cultural signature and leadership, where they sit on a spectrum and how they could sharpen their own competitive edge
The impact of culture on institutional investors
Culture is a unique ingredient in the struggle for competitive advantage among institutional investment organisations. There are ways for culture to be managed and developed over time but it will take focus, patience, leadership and process.
This paper discusses the factors and strategies for the effective implementation of a strong organisational culture.
A further dimension to our sustainability research – as recognition of the need for organisations to better understand the value they create for stakeholders. Understanding what stakeholders value is a critical input into determining an organisation’s vision, strategy and culture. Further reading: Missions Critical: understanding value creation.
Multi-factor diversity
Organisations need to be wary of this and employ deeper thinking on diversity, in all of its forms, whilst employing a sustained and systematic commitment to diversity and its inclusion in all aspects of their business models. Further reading: Multi-factor diversity.
Better decision making
Collective decision-making is a skill that can be more easily nurtured in an organisation with a strong and collaborative culture. Further reading: Better decision -making: a toolkit, contains a list of tools, including how to improve group dynamics for key decision-making meetings.