SimCorp StrategyLab awards excellence

in growth and cost management

Promoting and rewarding superior achievements in investment management are embodied in the SimCorp StrategyLab annual awards for excellence in risk, cost and growth management.

By Lars Falkenberg

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SimCorp StrategyLab is the independ­ent research arm of SimCorp, and the institution’s work focuses on identify­ing, understanding and suggesting ways to meet challenges related to mitigating risk, reducing cost and enabling growth in the global investment management industry. As an example of its activities to meet this goal, SimCorp Strategy­Lab has established its annual Excel­lence Awards for the purpose of pro­moting and singling out superiority within risk, cost and growth manage­ment.

The SimCorp StrategyLab Excellence Awards 2010 were announced at a ma­jor annual investment management in­dustry conference on 9 September in Berlin. Among this year’s strong en­tries, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management and Nordea Savings & Asset Management were named the winners of the SimCorp StrategyLab Growth and Cost Management Excel­lence Awards 2010, respectively. The international jury included Professor and Director of SimCorp StrategyLab Ingo Walter, Professor Paul Verdin of KU Leuven University, Professor Michael Pinedo of Stern School of Business, NYU, and Chairman of the Board of SimCorp StrategyLab, Peter L. Ravn, CEO of SimCorp.

In the case of Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, the company was awarded in recognition of its outstand­ing achievements within growth man­agement. Specifically, the award was given for the company’s ability to not only weather the challenging condi­tions during the recent financial crisis, but also for putting a growth strategy in place that secured it a considerable in­crease in the number of clients, revenue and earnings.

In awarding Nordea Savings & Asset Management for cost management ex­cellence, the assessment was founded on the company’s work with strategic cost management. Singled out was its foresight in seeing the benefits of doing so even before the financial crisis forced the industry in general to take a more structured approach to managing costs. Despite higher volumes and increased complexity in business demands, the company was able to reduce its opera­tional cost base in successive years.

The companies’ individual award-win­ning growth and cost management achievements are featured in separate articles in this issue, on pp. 18–20 and 21–23. This year, the jury’s careful as­sessment of contributions demonstrat­ing accomplishments particularly within risk management concluded that none of the entries sufficiently met the stated requirements to be awarded the Risk Management Excellence Award 2010.

Last year MEAG, Munich Re‘s global asset manager, was named the winner of the Risk Management Excellence Award 2009 after a thorough evaluation of entries by an international jury con­sisting of distinguished specialists and academics within finance, governance and risk management. The award was given to MEAG because of the compa­ny’s well-conceived and implemented risk policy. Specifically, the jury was impressed by the fact that risk manage­ment was regarded as an issue of sig­nificant, strategic importance even be­fore the financial crisis broke out and that systems, policies and processes were in place accordingly.

Ulrik Modigh, Head of Asset Management Operations, Nordea Savings & Asset Management, accepts the Cost Management Excellence Award from Chairman of the Board of SimCorp StrategyLab, Peter L. Ravn, CEO of SimCorp, and SimCorp StrategyLab Director, Professor Ingo Walter, Stern School of Business at NYU.

Already now, SimCorp StrategyLab in­vites global investment management in­stitutions to join the competition in pur­suit of the SimCorp StrategyLab Excellence Awards 2011. An interna­tional jury, consisting of renowned spe­cialists and academics within finance, economics and applied IT, will assess the applicants’ abilities to mitigate risk, reduce cost and enable growth in today’s demanding financial environment.

The assessment will be based on an evaluation of the participants’ new de­velopments, best practices and achieve­ments accomplished within a specified time period up to 31 July 2011. Sim­Corp StrategyLab looks forward to again recognising and celebrating out­standing achievements in investment management by announcing next year’s Excellence Award winners in Septem­ber 2011, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Submit your contributions to qualify for SimCorp StrategyLab Risk, Cost and Growth Management Excellence Awards 2011. Read more about SimCorp StrategyLab, its Excellence Awards and the submission guidelines at www.simcorpstrategylab.com.