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In case, we haven’t met or don’t know each other , here is a quick bio : I am Vipul Mangla, and I have spent most of my last decade as a Management Consultant for the big spiders and wolves of our world (acronym for Banks) and in my spare time, I remain glued to content ranging from Travel to History to Psychology to Finance, basically whatever satiates my curiosity. The serving modes typically are Books, Podcasts, Webinars, OTT, Audible, Medium and other myriad links on the web.
I am known for occasionally ranting about all this content in my inner circle and this newsletter is my humble attempt to extract key learnings from this daily consumption across screens and distribute the same to a wider audience. I hope you will enjoy it and find something useful and worth your precious time !
The First Post!
What I learnt at Work : #WorkTime
I attended the RiskLive conference this week which had a great ensemble of experts from the world of Finance and Banking (Global Asset Management heads from UBS, HSBC, Bloomberg, State Street - to name a few). They shared their insights over a period of 5 days, elaborating on the new post-Covid Risk Management world, what were their learnings from the pandemic induced crisis and how everyone is adapting.
Here I am sharing few snippets from a session on Liquidity Risk Management (These propositions can certainly be extended and customized for other industries/domains):
The three learnings which stood out for the banks from the handling of Liquidity and Economic Crisis of 2020Q1 (Courtesy : Covid-19 and The Great Lockdown) were:
Communicate and Collaborate: Amidst all the roar about automation and digitization, all the esteemed panelists agreed to a common view about having effective communication channels as extremely critical during a crisis. When the chips were down and liquidity started drying up, the traders and risk managers had to make some quick decisions, and then it was their valued long term relationships with the clients that helped them in navigating the tough situations and not only retain the existing client base but also expand certain service profiles and scope.
“Low touch systems actually became high touch.”
This quote from one of the panelists reminded me of yet another webinar that was organized by Delta Capital in the summer of this year. It also laid out the criticality of human touch, even in highly automated systems.
Two key takeaways stood out to me then: (Please click here if you would like to hear the full 45-minute recording of the webinar)
The client base today for wealth management ranges from 60 year-old HNIs to NexGen clients in their 20s. Hence, digital tools are certainly essential but these tools have to enhance the personal touch rather than replace it.
We need to use technology to reduce time (reduce mundane administrative tasks, use Zoom/Teams for reaching out to many novel prospects in the time saved on business travel). Additionally, we need to leverage technology to increase client-delight, having enjoyable onboarding experiences (perform standard due-diligence digitally as much as possible) and focusing more on tailored, customized solutions for various clients.
Product Design - The design principles that were used while creating any banking product/fund were truly tested during the crisis. Hence, it became imperative that all scenarios (with varying degree of stress situations) for the product and the underlying dependencies were well-thought through, from a liquidity perspective, reviewed by various LOBs (lines of business) and LODs (lines of defense) and then put into implementation. Post implementation also, there was a continual cycle of feedback loop which was fed to the design teams as per the stress test results.
Contingency Plans - Detailed and effective contingency playbooks built on the back of numerous stress tests, continual improvement process and data driven approach truly stood out. The situations faced during March-April months resonated with the tail events from stress tests conducted earlier and hence, banks could leverage the action plans and expert judgements listed for them.
(Even Barack Obama talked about such playbooks being prepared during his reign for any nation-wide healthcare crisis, which Trump administration chose to ignore.
“We don’t know where that playbook went.”
Thus, it goes without saying that if the leadership is unwilling to ‘learn, unlearn, trust and act’, when it is most required, then playbooks and previous preparation processes hardly hold any meaning).
What I learnt at OTT : #BingeTime
Borgen : Netflix
Over the last 1 month, there was enough drama brewing in the international media over the US politics, courtesy Mr. Trump. Although it was nothing less than any fictionalized version of ‘House of Cards’, but I was still reeling from the urge to watch a good political drama, something similar to ‘The West Wing’ and it led me to this Danish political drama : Borgen. (Borgen is the informal name of Christiansborg Palace where all branches of Danish government reside)
The show tells a story about the rise of a female prime minister to the highest office against all odds and the challenges that she faces in running a coalition government. Her handling of pertinent issues of immigration, healthcare, international wars, and environment crisis is depicted in a very real way and the compromises that she has to make on her ideals and her kids and family life makes you think about the sacrifices that such positions of power demand. The show brings out the human element behind the formidable personalities of the PM, their staff, family ‘s success/failure to support their PM, what it means to be always in the spotlight (Yes, there is a media channel in the show akin to our own ‘Republic TV’). In short, it keeps you hooked to the ‘struggle’ of the protagonist at being a mother, a wife and a country’s top leader, all at the same time. The first two seasons definitely are worth a binge-watch, with final season 3 as optional.
Side Note: Each episode opens up with a quote or epigraph. That certainly tingles your intellectual nerve ! And there is an episode on the elusive land of Greenland.
"Denying the existence of a ghost will only make it grow bigger." : Greenland Proverb.
#Trending
Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit has been watched by more than 62 million households and it is now Netflix’s all-time most-watched scripted limited series. Thanks to the power of social media, it has soared the sale of chessboards across the world and accelerated the DAU (daily active users) count for Chess.com.
I am yet to watch the show, but thought of sharing this interesting bit of statistic. It was brought to my attention by one of Linkedin’s top voices - Group Director of Facebook : Martin Harbech!
So, that’s it folks for this week. I hope the content was enriching and enjoyable.
Next week, I will be sharing some insightful nuggets from a wonderful Stanford course on Human Behavior and from a widely discussed book of this year on Personal Finance.
P.S: I would love to hear from you, so please drop a note with your feedback (The Good, the Bad, The Ugly) or just to say 'Hi' at vipulmangla89@gmail.com.
Also, if you come across something which is thought-provoking and share-worthy, please feel free to share with me : vipulmangla89@gmail.com