181: Wisdom From the Battle Hardened: Timeless Life & Career Insights from Top Global Executives

0:00Welcome to the Money Maze podcast. I'm Simon Brewer and along with Will Campion, my co-founder, we've created this show to explore and unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the investment business. Here are a selection of moments that resonated with us and we hope that you can find value in their comments. Beginning first with Peter Frankopan, global historian at Oxford University and bestselling author of The Silk Roads. what advice would you give to a young person who thinks that they might have a future which involves writing get on with it you know right lots of people lots of authors have an idea up their sleeve you know put it on the page then worry about it i think i think that that's that's the first thing you know and sometimes the academic world you know my my horror when i was a graduate student was that the people who were the cleverest had never written their magnum opus you know they were always waiting for it to be perfect because i guess they were worried that it would be you know how it would be judged or reviewed but but just i think get on with it and give it a go and also podcast podcasts nothing wrong with those simon you know the way of communicating complex ideas in a way that's interesting digestible and you know not everybody's got time on their hand so finding different ways to communicate maybe it's maybe writing books goes alongside being able to give lectures and come on podcasts and talk about their ideas next is Ron Biscardi, co-founder and CEO of iConnections.

1:22Was there any advice you'd give to a 21-year-old Ron Biscardi? The thing that probably has helped me the most, I feel like my career really started to move when I stopped worrying about what everyone else thought and just took more chances, even in small ways. I probably had more what I'll call head trash than maybe other people in the industry in the early days because I didn't come, I didn't have a Wharton MBA. I didn't grow up, you know, on a trading desk. I was an engineer, you know, and then I had been a recruiter. So it wasn't, it didn't always make sense to people, like, why I was even in this business in the early days.

2:13And I think my advice would be just don't worry about that. Just keep, if you find ways to pay it forward and to help people, everything just kind of takes care of itself. If you work to build your network in a way where you're helping people with what they want, what they're trying to achieve, and that's your focus, you'll make a lot of friends very fast. And you'll have a lot of people that want to pay it back when you need it. Uh, so I, it took me a little longer to learn that one than I would have liked. CEO of NEPC, Michael Manning, who offered some really valuable words of advice. I would say focus on relationships and not the transactions because the real, you know, so much of today is about, do we live in a soundbite world?

3:01It's like, what am I getting for this? You know, over time you look back and, you know, you, you talked about Will and your relationship with him and how you ended up working with him here now. And just the relationships you develop and if you do the right thing and treat people fairly. I mean, we live in a world where in our business there have to be transactions. But if you can do them effectively, you can get sometimes to a better outcome. And it's not just that one transaction. So I would think about the relationships and spend your time as a young person. Early in your career, so many people are focused on, do I get the next promotion?

3:35Do I make the next raise? is like, you know, I try and tell my own boys and then, you know, also the young folks who started NABC is like, early in your career, you just want to learn as much as you can. So, someone asks you to say yes, like just say yes, get a bunch of different experiences because you never know how that'll marinate and come back to you later in life. You know, to make connections, you know, that gets back to the relationship part, you know, meet people, get to know them because again, those come back, you may not realize it. And then the third is have fun. As a young person, enjoy yourself.

4:08We also spoke with Mark Boggart, CEO of Seraphim Space, in a fascinating interview about investing in that whole new frontier. And in particular, he talks about tenacity and why it has no substitute. And how have you dealt with any real setbacks in your life? I think life is a series of setbacks. And, you know, it's just about being tenacious. That is the answer to everything in my experience. The next is James Anderson, CIO of Lingotto's Innovation Strategy and one of the UK's most successful investors over the last few decades. For all that I'm sure machines will also be competitors of us in active investment in the future.

4:54I think if you are curious, if you get enjoyment out of it, and if you can try and sort of think whether there is some way that you could have a differentiated process of investment, it's a great career. The thing that made me sad is, was too many people go into investment management because it's an eye flies with good rewards and good social acceptance. Those are the wrong people to be an investment, you should do it because you think you might have a real commitment to it. Marcy Frost, all the way from California, talked to us about how her resilience and her driving ambition to push herself upward, despite none of the obvious qualifications of some of her peers, has landed her in such an important position at Culpers.

5:42It's finding your voice. I've been coaching on that a lot lately. I think women earlier in their career find it a little more difficult to find their voices around what they're passionate about, what they stand for, what their personal brand is, and really sticking to that personal brand as much as you possibly can. The brand of what am I really good at and how do I know what I'm good at? But also, you know, finding some sponsors. Women cannot promote as equally and still in this day cannot promote as equally without male sponsors helping them, speaking about them. Uh, so make sure you're developing a network of male sponsors and female sponsors, and then just working with women.

6:25Sometimes women, we tend to be much harder on our female counterparts than we are our male counterparts. And so just, if you're in that place to help lift women, uh, please, you know, please do so. And, you know, invite those conversations around risk-taking. There's no reward if you don't take some, some risk taking that feedback, but it's really finding your voice. I got some coaching from someone who I have a lot of respect for and I didn't have my voice early in my career Just you know, it's more of this headstand working hard finding that way to be noticed versus finding my voice and what I stood for And I made that change mid-career and it just opened so many doors that I would not have seen even available To me and so that would be the advice I think, find your voice and make sure you pay attention to building out that network and knowing what you're good at and spend more time doing that and less time about the things that you're not as interested in doing.

7:22And we can't leave without mentioning Luba Nicolina, one of our few guests who have appeared twice at two different firms. Originally Willis Towers Watson as head of research, and now at IFM, where she is chief strategy officer, one of the world's most interesting and potent firms dealing with infrastructure, which has been referred to in many interviews as a critical component in global, institutional, and maybe increasingly private portfolios. Lots of our guests have success stories, but generally there will have been pockets of setbacks. And I wonder what advice you would give in terms of resilience when you've met an obstacle or a setback, how you have dealt with it and what you advise people who have that ahead.

8:07Yeah, well, it's quite obvious. Don't give up. but then at the same time when I was younger I genuinely was not giving up 100 % and then over time I just figured out that sometimes if you are trying to push through the wall and it's not yielding then you can go around the wall so not giving up but sometimes pivoting to ensure that you get to your objective fast We'd also like to insert a few words of wisdom offered by guests on our curated podcast channel a sister channel designed for finance professionals and for firms raising capital, profile or awareness. Stephen Roberts, CIO of Orgai Capital, offered his insights into the need to ask more questions.

8:58You go to so many, say, dinner parties or you sit next to people now and so few people ask you questions. And, you know, for me, I just think all young people should be engaging. You know, if you've sat next to somebody, you should have asked them at least 20 questions. And for me, you know, young people just need to ask more questions and be interested what people other people do. And that was going to give them a steer on what they want to do. Finally, Dr. Christina Maguire, CEO of Elephant Asset Management, spoke to us about why more women should consider joining the investment industry. It is a fantastic job for women and also for mothers.

9:38The beautiful thing is that you don't have to be at a certain place to do your research, to do your calls with management teams. And I would love for more young women to consider this career path as an option, because I firmly believe it is a wonderful one for women. I don't understand why there are so few of us left. And we do have quite a number of female research analysts. somehow we are not doing a good job as an industry of keeping them to sort of migrate to the next level. And I think we really need to ask ourselves what we are doing wrong here, because it is a fantastic job that you can do, even if you have a family.

10:37A lot of what you do is thinking, reading, interacting with people you source information from, all of this does not require that you sit in your office for 12 hours a day. You can easily do these things from home, and I wished more young women would be considering it. All content on the Money Maze curated podcast are for your general information and use only, and is not intended to address your particular requirements. In particular, the content does not constitute any form of advice, recommendation, representation, endorsement, or arrangement, and is not intended to be relied upon by users in making or refraining from making any specific investment or other decisions.

11:25We try to provide content that is accurate at the date of publishing. However, we give no assurance or warranty regarding the accuracy, timeliness, or applicability of any of the contents. Guests, presenters, and other individuals involved in the production of this podcast may have positions in any of the investments discussed. Additionally, please note that the Money Maze curated podcasts are funded by the interviewee or their featured organization, unlike the Money Maze podcast, which is funded by third-party advertising.