Browsing: Sales & Marketing in the AI Industry

By Diane Harrison There typically are two business attitudes about branding. One, those that are hyper focused on building and keeping a high quality brand, and two, those that don’t see the point of all the hype. We know the first group—these are industry brand titans, such as Starbucks, FedEx,Read More

By Diane Harrison The financial world is awash in presentation decks—loaded with data, charts, tables, graphs, and an endless series of bullet points. Financial folks seem to think that lots of proof points make for strong arguments in favor of whatever they are selling. In the financial industry, many PowerPointsRead More

By Diane Harrison Spring represents a fresh opportunity for investors and fund managers to have meaningful discussions about each other’s needs and solutions. Both parties want to arrive at congruence; sadly, the getting there often brings conversational hiccups and missed opportunities. Managers new to the business of talking to investorsRead More

By Diane Harrison A picture is worth more than 1000 words… this phrase has been translated in dozens of ways, but all represent the sentiment that a simple image can represent a complex message with great impact. Similarly, a well-written blog can paint a picture for a reader and bringRead More

By Diane Harrison Pitching to investors can be an unnerving process even for sales professionals. No one wants to be in the position of needing someone to buy in, literally, to what they are selling in order to stay alive in business. Yet for most fund managers, this is exactlyRead More

Scotiabank recently released what it calls a “high-level guide for mutual fund companies interested in launching liquid alternative products.” The creation of this guide was stimulated by a reform of the regulations of the Canadian Securities Administrators, aimed at making liquid alternatives more readily available to investors in Canada. OnRead More

In the business of money management, influencing others is a skill that rivals investment expertise. If one can’t earn someone’s trust, and money, then one can’t run a true investment management business, no matter how talented a financial player one may be. To gain the support and gather assets ofRead More

By Diane Harrison In the final months of 2018, a mid-term election year here in the U.S., rhetoric is forming and tempers are soaring as candidates try to create narratives that suit their political objectives. It calls to mind the phrase “form over substance,” where what is said often bearsRead More

By Diane Harrison It used to be that if you asked most financial professionals what the single most important piece of sales collateral was, the answer would be the pitch book, of course. In the current era of tweets, email blasts, podcasts, and other media deliverables, has the old-fashioned deckRead More

By Diane Harrison It’s simple human nature to believe more of what you see than what you hear. The human brain is wired to process visual information more easily than contextual words. According to a June 15 Washington Post article, “Charts Change Hearts And Minds Better Than Words Do,” chartsRead More

By Diane Harrison Hegemony, holding a slightly sinister meaning in most contexts, defines an asymmetrical power relationship, in which there is social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by one group over others. Where better to see hegemony in practice than in the world of hedge funds, when the behemothRead More

One of the most successful variety shows on television was the Lawrence Welk Show. Debuting in 1955, the show ran for 28 straight years, compiling 1065 episodes, then was picked up in syndication and continues running today on PBS. Combining musical skits and featured guest performers, the show established itselfRead More

By Diane Harrison Merriam-Webster defines a debate as ‘a regulated discussion of a proposition between two matched sides.’ A good debate is not an argument. Rather, it is a thoughtful process of insightful positioning that allows two sides of a concept to be explored on their merits. Sound a bitRead More

The Deloitte Center for Financial Services has put out a white paper on “Alternative data for investment decisions.” The term “alternative data” as Deloitte uses it refers to any set or sets of data that may be useful for investors but that is outside their traditional/conventional frame of reference.  InRead More

By Diane Harrison Despite being overused in finance, the golfing analogy ‘Drive for show, putt for dough’ bears relevance in alternative investments. While the bigger, flashier managers in alternatives often garner the most media and investor attention, smaller managers have a real chance to exhibit their investment acumen through theRead More

By Diane Harrison There’s no denying that one of the biggest challenges small managers face is raising capital. To become large enough to turn a profit and expand is a common migraine that keeps emerging managers up at night. Forget fretting over last quarter’s performance: most of these managers obsessRead More

Late last year a California state court found that the plaintiffs in a class action suit stated a cause of action when they alleged that the defendant, iShares Trust, had failed to disclose the material risk of using market or stop loss orders in connection with ETFs. This spring theRead More

Beachhead Capital Management has published a white paper on what it calls the “second generation of liquid alternatives.” To begin at the beginning, “liquid alternatives” are investment products, available to retail investors, for example through mutual funds or ETFs, which are designed to provide the diversification and absolute-return benefits typicallyRead More

By Diane Harrison Few offenses are more aggravating to investors In the investor/manager communication process than being misled. Who hasn’t been subject to the frustration of trying to ascertain a clear answer from an alternatives manager about an issue germane to the investor’s ultimate decision to invest or not toRead More

By Diane Harrison What habit is as old as time itself? It has to be making all kinds of ‘do-better’ resolutions at the beginning of the year, only to see them falter before the birds start building their nests each spring. NBC News ran an article online in January discussingRead More

By Diane Harrison Looking to the past as a way to gauge the likely direction of the future is a popular exercise in the first quarter of every year. It’s a natural desire for people to want to improve on their personal and professional lives; taking stock of where theyRead More

In a new white paper, CaseyQuirk has identified four catalysts said to be driving secular change in the active asset management world: New buyer demands emphasizing different value propositions for asset managers. Related to this – institutions are losing relative importance to high-net-worth individuals, and these individuals “value different attributesRead More

By Diane Harrison Charles Dickens’ Bleak House spins a tale of mystery, intrigue, family dynamics, and irony in the Victorian age that had readers gripped by its indictment of the English court system. While the novel is packed with intricate plot twists and turns, the main story line centers onRead More

The “soft dollars” question, that is, the issue of the arrangements by which the managers of other peoples’ and other institutions’ money might most appropriately pay for investment-related research, remains unresolved. Traditionally, the managers of investment funds, alternatives among them, could collect rebates from the trading fees charged them byRead More

By Diane Harrison The Rule of 150, first posited in the 1990s by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, refers to the maximum number of people with whom any person can build meaningful relationships.  While there appears to be a spirited debate over the actual figure (100? 150? 250?), the general assumptionRead More

By Diane Harrison Beware the industry naysayers who proclaim hedge funds aren’t worth their salt–fees/risk/terms/etc. Sweeping generalizations may make good headlines, but they are invariably proven false by the minority that refutes them through action/statements/results/etc. Investors who take the time and effort to look under the ‘hedge fund hood’ canRead More

By Diane Harrison The line between wealth management and fund management continues to blur for the alternative asset managers who serve the high-net-worth investor community. Driven by a growing desire on the part of these investors to maximize control over their investment portfolio, managers who are emerging or who operateRead More

In October 2015, a scholar at the University of Toronto wrote a paper on what he called the “paranoid style of investment lawyers and arbitrators,” bemoaning an increasingly shrill and belligerent tone in the investment world of late. If there is such paranoia, one probable contributor, and one possible consequenceRead More

By Diane Harrison The Lake Wobegon Effect—where, according to its creator, Garrison Keillor, ‘all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average’—relates to the tendency to overestimate one’s achievements and capabilities in relation to others. Lake Wobegon seems to be aliveRead More

On June 2, 2016 the EC issued a consultation document of interest to the many alpha seekers who would like to market their funds in one or more of the countries of the Eurozone. In a sense, its interest is much broader than that, because it fits into a veryRead More

By Diane Harrison Spring is typically filled with tailored events for investors and managers to engage, learn about industry happenings and market views, and find investment opportunities with each other. One of the newer trends at such events includes the speed-date, in which pre-arranged, one-on-one sit down meetings allow investorsRead More

Lucy Koh, the US. District Court judge for the Northern District of California, has granted judgment for a defendant, Schwab Investments, in a much-watched case. Koh has short-circuited litigation in which plaintiffs sought recovery for the style drift that allegedly afflicted a number of Schwab entities as the globe headedRead More

By Diane Harrison 2016 will not offer an easy path to follow on the way to asset gathering. Effective marketing can lead to new prospects, which in turn can lead to new assets, so it is vital to focus on the impact marketing can make. If you rely solely onRead More

Guest columnist Diane Harrison looks at the six questions that managers must answer.Read More

Cyber attack, SEC letter, hounded by the press... What is a hedge fund manager to do, or not? Read More