EUROPE
UK WINNER:
Martin Baines Quilter Cheviot
CEO Insight... Q
What are your most important professional achievements at your current company?
First, building a market leading discretionary investment proposition from what was a traditional stock broking business. The discretionary investment service we pioneered was more in line with the requirements and demands of our clients, this led to growth in direct business and very soon we were able to establish distribution in the intermediary market and are still recognised as a leading provider of discretionary investment services in this sector.
More latterly, I would have to say leading the buy-out of the business from Morgan Stanley.
Q Q How did you do that?
By having a clear vision of the opportunities that were arising from regulatory and market changes, and being able to provide the business with direction and motivation to deliver in line with these changes.
What education or prior experience helped you succeed at your current
company?
My formal education has been less useful to me than my experience in client facing roles where I developed a deep under- standing of the importance of under- standing the needs of our target audiences and ensuring that we are de- veloping our proposition to pre-empt their needs.
Q Q
Q
What lessons did you learn on your way to becoming a CEO?
To build a great team, empower them and give them the space to deliver and never forget the client.
What lessons have you learned as a CEO?
The importance of organisational culture to bottom line results - there is real value in creating an innovative entrepreneurial culture it is imperative that the working environment encourages these traits and allows people to flourish.
What are the key success factors for a CEO?
Key success factors are the ability to communicate a compelling vision and to be able to lead the business effectively to deliver the vision. Successful CEOs trust in their people and offer appropriate support. A great CEO also has patience and resilience – the patience to wait for a vision to come to fruition and the resilience to see things thorough even when the going gets tough.
Q
What are the key challenges for a CEO?
Investment management is a highly regulated sector, so I would have to say in my experience one of the biggest challenges has been to establish a healthy tension between our regulatory responsibilities and commercial goals. The best results are achieved when this balance is right.
28 Finance Monthly CeO AwArdS 2013
Second establish a great culture which allows all staff to perform at optimum level and achieve role satisfaction. Recruiting good people is tough, retaining them should be easy if the culture offers empowerment, appropriate financial and non-financial rewards and the opportunity to develop and deliver tangible results. This has been an essential consideration in the integration of Quilter and Cheviot to create the new combined Quilter Cheviot business.
Q
How did you overcome those challenges?
We have created a healthy tension between our regulatory responsibilities and our commercial goals, by investing heavily in the best legal and compliance resource and regularly taking external counsel to ensure that key decision makers have a great understanding of the regulatory landscape as well as having a clear focus on our commercial goals. This means that our team are best placed to identify innovative new ways of working with our target markets in a way that satisfies our regulatory responsibilities as well as achieving commercial goals.
Q Q
How do you manage the relationship with your Board of
Directors?
I work with our Board in a collegiate and open manner, respecting the skills, knowledge and experience that they bring to the table.
What do you look for in your successor?
A calm, insightful and knowledgeable
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