OpinionMar 22 2013

Advisers don’t share their best ideas - and why would they?

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
comment-speech

My co-speaker said: “The amazing thing about this industry is that everyone is willing to share ideas and best practices.” And for a moment I agreed with him but after a little time thinking about it, I disagreed with him – well partially.

Yes, there are many people willing to share thoughts and ideas, but that is because we are not really sharing anything new. It is also because we rarely find ourselves in competition with each other.

Regardless of how advanced we think we are, we are really a hotchpotch collection of small enterprises trying to improve the wheel rather than reinvent it. When we share our thoughts and ideas we are not sharing any of our intellectual property, we are simply sharing some best practices.

But those firms that do have intellectual property tend not to share their knowledge, and why would they?

If we can build processes to attract new business and deal with it in a repeatable way, and systems that help retain existing business for longer, why would we want to share?

If all you need to scale a business is more information technology, you are playing a different game. Businesses that have achieved replicable processes and systems do not share their knowledge or experiences.

I cannot imagine any of the platforms presenting to their peers and sharing the things that make them successful (or otherwise). They might be happy to share some knowledge but only where it leads to further distribution of their own product or service.

Their intellectual property seems to stay firmly behind closed doors. I do not see Hargreaves Lansdown, Alliance Trust, True Potential or St James’s Place sharing their knowledge, unless it enhances the market position.

While much of our knowledge is already in the public domain, there are aspects of what we do that might be considered intellectual property, and these will increasingly have a value. Recognising what these are will be crucial to building value in our businesses that is not reliant on recurring revenue based on assets under management.

I am fascinated by the idea of building a value around brand, process and systems; and technology gives all businesses, even small ones, the ability to create value in all these areas.

Coincidentally, there was a recent Institute of Financial Planning meeting in London where the main subject was intellectual property, a subject that I thought was apposite for business owners like me. Our world changes and website cloning is probably only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to intellectual property.

I am fascinated by the idea of building a value around brand, process and systems; and technology gives all businesses, even small ones, the ability to create value in all these areas.

Dennis Hall is managing director of Yellowtail Financial Planning