Managing a Crisis Before it Manages You (video)
Cyber attack, SEC letter, hounded by the press... What is a hedge fund manager to do, or not? Read More
View ArticleNo More Double-speak, Please! 6 Questions You Need to Answer
Guest columnist Diane Harrison looks at the six questions that managers must answer.Read More
View ArticleJump Start Your Fund Marketing Tactics
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...
View Article10 Phrases To Jettison From Every Marketing Pitch
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...
View ArticleForesight is Better than Hindsight
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...
View ArticleNew AIMA Guide: 7 Themes for Investor Relations Professionals
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...
View ArticleATTACK MARKETING USING THE RULE OF 150
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....
View ArticleResearch, Unbundling and MiFID II
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,...
View ArticleBLEAK HOUSE–OR THE OUTLOOK ON HEDGE FUNDS NOW
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....
View ArticleIndustry Headwinds: And How to Move Forward Regardless
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...
View ArticleCHANGE MANAGEMENT FOR FUND MANAGERS
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...
View ArticleCommit to Quit: Habits for Successful Fund Managers
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...
View ArticleTHE Q&A THAT’S DOA (A.K.A. DEAD ON ARRIVAL)
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...
View ArticleA PRACTICUM FOR AUM
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...
View ArticleTALK FOR SHOW, BLOG FOR DOUGH
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...
View ArticleThe Tipping Point for Alternative Data
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...
View ArticleTHE ART OF IMPROVING INVESTOR RELATIONS
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...
View ArticleManager Selection Through A ‘Welkian’ Lens
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...
View ArticleHedge Fund Hegemony And How To Handle It
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...
View ArticleBelieve Your Eyes!
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...
View ArticleThe Pitch Book: Dead Or Alive?
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...
View ArticleSubstance Over Form
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...
View ArticleRhetoric Done Right
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...
View ArticleWhat Aren’t They Saying—Unspoken Investor Feedback
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...
View Article1000 Words Can Be Worth More Than A Picture
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...
View ArticleIN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
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;...
View ArticleA POWER(FUL) POINT: LESS IS 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...
View ArticleThe Iceberg Impact in Brand Management
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...
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