Hi, I’m Kim Rebecca. Throughout my career in the global asset management industry, I’ve had the opportunity to help facilitate data-heavy content automation.  I’ve done this on thousands of regulatory documents, marketing collateral, presentations, web pages and so on. Actually, it’s probably hundreds of thousands. One of the key advantages of content automation is the accommodation of the ever-expanding scope of distribution. It allows product marketers such as myself to bolster their bragging rights. I’ve had the good fortune to help three global asset managers with their content automation efforts ­­— prominent and well-recognized firms managing assets galore. I was thus somewhat surprised to find that a common challenge in the implementation phase of all of their automation was something seemingly basic: the identification and articulation of something called business rules.Read More

New SEC regulations like Form ADV and N-PORT are putting even more pressure on registered investment companies to examine their regulatory enterprise risk management practices. Fund Operations reported that “RICs need to embrace the mandate of the new regulatory initiatives and proactively develop, implement and maintain robust Regulatory ERM systems to comply with…reporting obligations.”

As regulators continue to amp-up their scrutiny, many asset managers are taking a hard look at how they’re managing disclosures. Read More

It is universally understood in the marketing community that sales and marketing alignment is crucial to hitting revenue goals. Alignment around shared goals, technologies and processes allows you to monitor and optimize every stage of the buying cycle. Reports like this one from Marketing Advisory Network suggest that sales and marketing misalignment is not just a buzzword: companies are truly struggling with this reality.

But how aligned are sales and marketing teams at investment management firms, specifically?

We were curious. 

We hosted a private Marketing Roundtable discussion with sales and marketing leaders from top investment management firms. We wanted to learn more about the state of sales and marketing alignment at investment management firms. Here are a few notable takeaways we’d like to share:Read More

There’s a real temptation in most aspects of life to focus on the headlines and not pay close attention to the subheadings, caveats, and gory details.

We see this in politics; The candidate says he or she will cut taxes or fund free yoga lessons for everyone (yeah!) but the guy talking about the programs that will go wanting or where the revenue will come from is a downer and his voice gets lost in the news cycle.

We see this in entertainment; The arena-filling rock band puts on a show for the ages, but there is no attention given to the artists mixing the sound to make it really rock in the acoustically-disastrous venue. Or, the logistics teams that figure out how to get nine semi-trucks full of equipment and crew from St. Louis to Chicago and setup for the next gig in 48-hours. (In one of my future-life alternate careers, I personally want to work in logistics for a multi-purpose arena and help organize its conversion from NBA setup, to hockey game setup, to Monster Truck setup, to rock venue and back again to NBA configuration – all in a 12-day period.)

We see it in the financial services business…Read More