Wider Perspectives IV: Smarter together

In April 2020 most of the major countries of the world scrambled to contain the Covid pandemic with an unprecedented lockdown of their populations. The unique situation led TAI to publish a thought piece in June 2020 titled Wider Perspectives Act I, on the situation and the outlook.

This year, Roger Urwin and the team share their views on what we’ve been through; and the ‘new normal’ for the investment industry, asset managers and asset owners.

The story so far

The Act I reference was drawn from the framework of a Shakespeare play – we foresaw Covid as a drawn-out saga with five acts, many plotline twists, some lessons to be learned and a morality theme along the way.

Two years later, Covid’s grip on us has relented a little, but its long goodbye is everywhere. We argue we need wider perspectives all around us – zooming in on our personal lives, zooming out on a world in disarray, reconciling the different versions and levels of the new normal.

In particular, there are perspectives on three areas to explore:

• World of work perspectives – where we need to solve the challenge of hybrid working, build team diversity, strengthen team communications and ensure the innovation needs of our industry
• World of investment perspectives – where we must address the value chain issues, by moving beyond alpha and short-term gains to sustainable long-term value creation
• World of teams perspectives – where we suggest we can build the investment team of the future around stronger diversity, culture, governance and T-shapedness

Smarter together suggests one of the key lessons to be learned is that ‘none of us is as smart as all of us’. To apply this principle it helps to have a grounding in systems theory and use that to solve our complex problems holistically and collaboratively with a style of leadership that is more empowering and empathetic.

Related reading

Wider Perspectives IV Article
Wider perspectives Act I, Act II, Act III and Act V
Leadership podcast and Leadership video
The Power of Culture whitepaper, study and podcast episode
Climate change podcast, Planet hub and 1.5C paper series
Adjusting focus | portfolio actions for a sustainable tomorrow