Management is there to manage and boards are there to supervise the managers. Investors and shareholders are perfectly entitled to discuss strategy and the medium- to long-term direction of a company, but they shouldn’t be involved in the minutiae of executing strategy.
I would never want to give up my day job of running money, meeting companies and battling with the markets. But I am enjoying driving the business as well.
There is a strong parallel between the way I do both jobs; it is all about teamwork. For years as an investor, I have relied upon good, strong colleagues around me.
I hate the “star manager” babble. In investment, you have to be humble: you have to acknowledge you don’t get everything right.
The moment you start to think you’re on top and that you’re a star, the market will come up and hit you. Right now, my fund is not performing very well and it is a clear reminder to me that you don’t always get it right all the time.
Do I feel the pressure? No. I live with it, but it does have some advantages. Having a high profile occasionally opens doors and you get to punch above your weight in terms of funds under management.
Perhaps they’re terrified that I don’t mind talking to the press about companies if I think they’re doing something wrong. Maybe people feel they ought to keep me on side.
The RDR was giving the industry a push in the direction it was already travelling in; it just speeded things up a bit. There is still more to go in terms of transparency and clarity about charging structures.
The surprise to some of the RDR’s orchestrators is that it has merely strengthened the importance of advice. It has not led to the demise of the IFA.
We have got to start some sort of compulsory savings. Australia started tentatively with 1 per cent, then increased to 3 per cent, then 5 per cent. Now it is in double digits and they have a massive pool of pension savings.
The tragedy of democracy is that the time horizon of politicians is five to 10 years at most. Decisions that will be of benefit over 30, 40 or even 50 years aren’t always taken. In the short term people always feel worse off.
The idea of compulsory savings may be unpopular, but it is the best thing for people in the long run.
Clearly the FSA and its light-touch regulation of banking as well as other financial services was a failure. I’m sure the Bank of England (BoE) losing banking supervision was a contributory factor to the financial crisis.
This has to be a better structure now. I think having the PRA and the FCA is a sensible split of responsibilities and it puts a lot more sensible power back with the BoE.
I made around 20 times my money from when I first bought Reuters shares through to selling Thomson Reuters. It was over a good number of years, but you don’t have many twenty baggers in large-cap land.
In my early years in the City, a mentor told me to go to anything, any company meeting in any sector, to be curious and be like a sponge and desperately try to absorb information. That’s still pretty good advice.
I am still trying to work out what I want to be when I grow up. What am I going to do one fine day when I have more time on my hands?
