Innovation In The Global Asset Owner Sector.... How Do We Get More Of It?

“This paper explains why innovation in asset ownership is both necessary and persistently slow. Drawing on five years of fieldwork (including 35 case studies with access to C-level leaders, and more   than 100 semi-structured interviews worldwide), we examine how innovation actually occurs inside asset owners, and why it so often stalls .”

Ashby Monk, Dane Rook, Rajiv SharmaStanford Research Initiative on Long-Term InvestingStanford University

 “Asset owners have traditionally counted on external asset managers to pursue bold innovations, rather than stretching their own limited resources to do so. But leading academic Ashby Monk has warned that this long-standing model is distilling short-term thinking in pension management and calls on asset owners to lean into their natural advantages and innovate .”

Darcy SongTop1000funds

 

A Paper on Blockages to Innovation in Asset Owner Organizations

The first quote above comes from a recent Paper titled “The Asset Owner Gearbox: Why Investment Innovation Grinds and How to Make It Turn”. The Paper was described in considerable detail in the February 13 Weekly Digest issue of Top1000funds in an article by Darcy Song titled “Why Asset Owners Should Not Outsource Innovation”. This Letter summarizes the key points in the Stanford Paper, agrees with its framing, and offers a compelling case study consistent with that framing. Surprisingly, despite being 27 pages long, drawing on 35 case studies, more than 100 interviews, and concluding with 53 reading references, the Stanford Paper made no mention of the compelling case study set out below.