Before coming to SIPA, I worked for three years at the endowment fund for a large non-profit philanthropic organization in India. While the mandate for the portfolio managers was purely financial return driven, I realized that the firm being tied so closely to the objective of funding philanthropic initiatives meant that it does belong somewhere on the continuum of responsible investing, though in a slightly different sense.
When I was assigned to the team designing an impact framework for a large, “traditional”, investment management firm in Latin America, I was excited to see how the members of the firm would perceive this additional layer to their investing process. Even now, when we design our communication and initiatives, I imagine my former portfolio managers back in India as the proxy audience.
A couple of weeks into the project, our team realized that we would be spending most of our time on the first step to inculcating an impact framework - obtaining buy-in from the team. This centered around the question - “To what extent can a 30+-year-old organization, whose DNA is strongly rooted in financial returns, prioritize impact?”
We would need to think of innovative ways to understand the team’s perspectives and reservations and put them into a framework that is well-suited to the organization. With this, we decided to dedicate our first month to gathering perspectives through a firm-wide survey and a series of interviews with select persons from the management team.
Discussions in class, particularly on navigating challenging client conversations, have been invaluable. We initially proposed framing the survey and interviews around personal values. However, concerns arose about striking the right balance between passion and professionalism. A glimpse into our discussions:
“Let's ask them the future they want for their children, and whether their investments lead us to this future!”
“Okay, but how can we do that more neutrally with the assumption of positive intent?”
“Will these romantic assertions work? What if they don’t? Should we focus more on the business case?”
“Well, how distinct are the two?”
This dilemma made me realize the importance of tailoring communication styles to specific audiences. I am keen to apply these learnings to our upcoming interviews with the team. I believe that if we can create a comfortable atmosphere, share our own experiences of how the field of sustainable investing piqued our interest, and display curiosity and empathy, we will get to the heart of the team’s ambitions. While we continue to discuss how the goal of impact can blend with that of financial returns, I am hopeful that the seemingly monumental task of changing mindsets will come with a few positive surprises along the way!