It’s all about the people at Schroders

The winning team of the Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year Award talks about its culture and what it takes to become part of Schroder Investment Management. Milana Pokrajac reports.

The financial services industry often relies on its people more heavily than other sectors. But when it comes to funds management, it is all about the people.

This is why Schroder Investment Management chief executive Greg Cooper attributed the continued success of the company to its team and the culture.

Schroders was named Money Management/Lonsec Fund Manager of the Year for the fourth consecutive time, also taking the top spot in three out of four other categories for which it was nominated this year.

“There are plenty of competitors out there in the market place, so if you’re going to outperform – it’s about how you can differentiate yourself from the others,” Cooper said.

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Cooper spent more than 20 years in financial services, having started his investment career in 1992. He worked in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore before joining Schroders in 2000.

He also sits on the board of the Financial Services Council (FSC) as deputy chairman and co-chairs the council’s investment board committee, among his other duties at the FSC.

Apart from Cooper, there is a team of distinguished executives and their respective teams who sit behind the scenes of Schroders’ success, such as head of Australian equities Martin Conlon and head of fixed income and multi-asset Simon Doyle.

Conlon is involved in the portfolio construction process for Australian equity mandates, while also retaining analytical responsibility for several other sectors. He began his career in 1989 as an accountant, but joined Schroders in 1994.

Doyle spent 15 years at AMP Henderson before moving to Schroders in 2003. He now has direct portfolio management responsibility for the fixed income, cash, balanced and real return funds, while also sitting on the Schroders Global Asset Allocation Committee.

“The team is critically important,” Doyle said.

“We’ve been very fortunate at Schroders over the last four of five years to have made pretty good asset allocation decisions, but also to have a capable group of investors sitting behind their desks and making the stock selection decisions.”

But when it comes to hiring new talent, it is not just the formal qualifications that matter. Cooper said the focus is mostly on those candidates with the smarts.

“What we look for are people who are inquisitive, so people who want to question the status quo,” he said.

For Cooper, being prepared to have a “non-consensus view” is one of the characteristics which would make a good analyst or a good portfolio manager over time.

“If your view is just the consensus, then while you may be right, you’ll be right along with everyone else,” Cooper said. “Where you stand out is when you’re right and the rest of the market is wrong, and that requires an ability and process to think outside of the square.”

While Schroders took their Fund Manager of the Year trophy home for the fourth consecutive time this year, two other companies – very different from one another – highly distinguished themselves in the overall category.

Runner-up BT Investment Management (BTIM) is particularly proud of not getting distracted by the short-term noise, having stayed true to their convictions.

“I think during the course of the year it is very easy to potentially lose your way,” said BTIM chief executive and managing director, Emilio Gonzalez.

“We were firm in terms of what we believed were the right investment opportunities and we’ve stuck by them; eventually they’ve come true.”

Gonzalez agrees the company’s culture is important.

“We have a multi-boutique model and our investment managers are independent in their thinking; we promote a culture of challenging one’s thoughts,” Gonzalez said.

Also making the cut on the shortlist was boutique Magellan Financial Group Australia, which specialises in international equities.

Casarotti said Magellan has two objectives: preserving the capital and generating a reasonable risk-adjusted return.

Standing next to giants Schroders and BTIM in the overall Fund Manager of the Year category presents a huge honour for Magellan, he added.

“It’s recognition that we are on the right track,” Casarotti said.

“Ours is a more concentrated specialist-type role, as distinct from both BT and Schroders, who arguably are experts in many classes.