Another round of musical chairs signal good health
On almost this exact day three years ago, Money Management reported a mass exodus from senior executives within the financial services in-dustry, as seats shuffled at a number of leading dealer groups.
In May 1996, Kevin Wyld left Bain Financial Planning; Kevin Bailey departed The Money Managers; and Tony Fenning stepped down from the top job at Godfrey Pembroke.
At the time, the moves signalled a changing of the guard. It was a tumultuous time for the industry as associations and companies re
On almost this exact day three years ago, Money Management reported a mass exodus from senior executives within the financial services in-dustry, as seats shuffled at a number of leading dealer groups.
In May 1996, Kevin Wyld left Bain Financial Planning; Kevin Bailey departed The Money Managers; and Tony Fenning stepped down from the top job at Godfrey Pembroke.
At the time, the moves signalled a changing of the guard. It was a tumultuous time for the industry as associations and companies recog-nised the need for change as the financial services industry moved on to its next stage of development.
As most in the industry would be aware, these departures did not re-flect on the individuals concerned. In fact, each of these major league departures remain some of the most respected names in finan-cial planning today.
And indeed many of the departures we chronicle in this issue have al-ready found new pastures in which to make their mark. The point is that the need for change in a growing industry is frequent and un-avoidable if organisations are to continually renew themselves for the constant changes facing the industry.
This financial year has been tumultuous in the funds management in-dustry in particular. After the exodus at Norwich following the ap-pointment of James McKenzie to oversee the group, further changes were afoot when the group swallowed up Portfolio Partners.
Meanwhile, Colonial went on a buying spree which lead to mass re-trenchments of senior executives as Colonial grappled with merging the Legal & General and Prudential operations into its own substan-tial funds management business.
A number of key figures at National Mutual left during the year as the upheaval created by the failed merger with MLC filtered through the business and cost cutting measures introduced by former chief Geoff Tomlinson started to bight.
While the latest round of chair changes may not be the result of the kind of restructures driven by mergers, they are signs that there is change in the industry which can only be healthy.
The companies that will be the winners in the coming years will be those that can continually renew their businesses. And the executives which will come out best will be those who can roll with the punches and adapt to the new financial services environment.
Ends
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