In 2020, there were fund managers who stayed in the status quo, remaining complacent amid a sea of legacy processes and manual Excel-driven methodologies. They fell victim to what I’m calling the Swimming Duck Syndrome.
This is where many executives were head-down, focused on fundraising and fund allocations — business as usual that looked good on the surface — while just below, their business functions were frantically keeping up with bespoke investor inquiries (often pulling all-nighters) to deliver reports to exude confidence, performance in hand, with risk and compliance in control. Meanwhile, consequences loomed from decisions made using dated information or misinformation from poorly managed data.
In 2020, I also saw a significant shift among many top managers who treated the beginning of the year with a real sense of urgency, taking action on key initiatives with special emphasis on data. Now, reflecting on the year, I see the foundations for what I expect
