This is truly, for me anyway, an extraordinary tale. The post after this one is about a wonderful sporting memory in which I personally did not star but the contribution I made was not trivial. This post sets the context for that experience and is therefore worth reading first.
Towards the end of the last century (that sounds weird) I started my last ‘formal’ job. I was Head Of The Institutional business for a company called Invesco. Based in Atlanta Georgia this company was one of the giants of the Investment world. For a series of particular reasons which I will not bore you with here it was quoted on the UK Stock Market. It was, at one time, the 12th largest company in the UK. It had offices all over the world.
Whilst a ‘corporate’ it had an internal ‘Partnership’ structure. At the top of the partnership hierarchy were a number of ‘Global Partners’. I was one of those and my responsibility was to grow the Pension Funds we managed for third party companies. The funds we had under management and therefore I had responsibility for were measured in billions not millions and the fees we charged generated the part of the revenue of the company. Along side my division in London was the ‘Retail Division’ that was run by a man called John Watson.
Most of you will have ISA’s or probably back in the day you had PEPS. Most retail investors have a limited grasp of what they are actually investing in and most IFA’s are not very good. Invesco was a good example of the sort of organisation I used to advise on the ‘other side of the fence’. It had a staff of highly paid very intelligent fund money managers, the sort of people I used to be in daily contact with. I was offered the job as Institutional Head, for reasons I can understand and I was paid, in truth , a shed load of money.
All back ground stuff to date I know and boring but here is where, I hope, it gets interesting. I found the job hugely stressful. First of all I had hundreds of people reporting to me. I was constantly on call. ‘The Firm”, probably because we were paid so much money, was everything to most of the partners-I was not so sure. I was involved in making huge decisions involving such things as IT spend, new branch office developments in cities in the non US world. This came about as I was a member of the Global Management team. I was actually in charge of ‘corporate culture’ no less. Maybe I will explain what that meant later.
I had little experience of presenting in depth ‘papers’ to boards but I had to do it. I did get on well with the group CEO, Charlie Brady who, an Irish American, lived in Atlanta and would spend his weekends in Aspen Colorado in his ranch there. He would get to it on Friday evenings courtesy of his own or one of his friend’s ‘corporate jets’. Atlanta boasts a sort of corporate club of great corporations their CEO’s forming a very exclusive membership and friendships. Atlanta is a strange place-for another time.
Back to the stress. John Watson’s role amongst other things was to grow the ‘retail funds under management’. Invesco charged around 1.5% of funds under management for its services in the retail space. The division had its own marketing division and in that division was a ‘small of stature’ Scotsman who I will call Steve, because I cannot recall his name. Now Steve was a complex character. A heavy drinker and smoker he was very good at his job which essentially was producing the various brochures and advertising material to promote the business. He had had a chequered career because of his ‘weaknesses’ but John had given him his job. Their relationship was odd. John sort of bullied Steve in a fatherly way but Steve seemed to enjoy the behaviour, maybe it gave him security. All this is leading somewhere amazing so keep reading.
Any way Steve was allowed to spend up to £10,000 on advertising, without referral, and one day he did. Out of the blue an old drinking buddy in an advertising agency got in touch and told Steve The ECB, (English Cricket Board) no less, had been let down by a corporate client and that the advertising space on the ‘sight screens’ and ‘bowlers run up areas’ at the various cricket grounds in the country for the upcoming Test series had become available, but he must be quick!. (Don’t know who the series was against but it is of no matter). Steve signed up and told John. John blew a fuse and accused Steve of ‘wasting money’.!
‘Invesco-Your Global Investment Partner’, it said every time the TV cameras pointed at the adverts. Which was by the way was pretty much constantly during the matches. In the advertising world much is subliminal, there is a metric called ‘opportunity to view’. The demographic of retail investment aligns perfectly with cricket followers and any way the main news bulletins were doing their bit by subliminally implanting the Invesco name into non sports fans by way of the sports sections at the end of the news before the ‘weather’ came on. (no one turns off)
I don’t remember if there was a budget change encouraging savings or whether the stock market was rising but money started to come in. One day £10 million pounds the next £15 million on and on it went. John changed his tune towards Steve and feeling guilty started trying to reward him first it was a ‘good lunch’ then a ‘special bonus’ but guess what- it did not work. Steve actually did not want to be ‘promoted’ or be given extra money. He was happy living in Streatham with his four kids. The extra money would ‘spoil’ things he had decided and he feared his drinking might get out of hand again. Steve became very distressed and indeed began drinking! John realised his error and instantly reassured Steve he would keep his achievements ‘quiet’. Steve actually resigned at one point I remember because he just wanted things ‘to return to normal’.
As a result John had to ‘take the credit’. You might think this to be incredible but what was to happen was more incredible. The flow of money became a torrent, then a flood. The Invesco name became the ‘go to’ place for IFAs and as these things can a fashion-think of how so many people got involved with Woodford.
Just so as you understand £100 million of funds (the amount attracted in a single week on one occasion) contributed 15 million pound to the bottom line of the organisation. As news of the ongoing success of the UK retail division was released to the ‘market place’ the value of the corporation was increased because the shares went up, in time a lot!.
So there was John who had done nothing but ‘bully’ Steve in the first place. Despite all his genuine efforts to downplay his personal contribution to the phenomenon John was a ‘hero’. The CEO would praise him in the annual Report and Accounts and over time everyone in the company was in awe of John’s ability to attract money to the company.- Only I knew the truth.- and Steve of course. Being a US company John was showered with even more financial reward, share options were the favourite way of paying. Up went the shares up went John’s wealth and up went his guilt-to stratospheric proportions.
One day he arrived in my rather grand glass office. We were good mates. ‘I cant stand any more of this’ he said. ‘The people from Lords have been round and you will never guess what”, ‘They have asked us to pay more for the advertising next year if we want to renew.” They have upped the charge by 50% to £15,000. ‘Of course I said yes’ he said ‘but I also actually heard myself claiming it was a hell of a rise for us to digest”!!! ‘What has become of me”? he moaned head in his hands.
If the ECB had known the truth they would have asked for and got hundreds of thousands I suspect for the deal. Any way John was at his wits end and he delivered a bombshell. ‘We’ he stated’ ‘are off to a meditation course. A Transcendental meditation course as designed by the Maharishi. It will do you good as I am told it is fantastic for stress It is my only hope and I need company” -I laughed but agreed to go.
Two weeks later I entered a smart terraced house somewhere in Chelsea and met a very kindly man called Johnathan who was to be my ‘guru’. John was a ‘no show”!
I went to see Johnathan every night for two weeks and undertook a fascinating course. As I may later relay I am an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist in fact and affairs of the mind fascinate me. The course was expensive but it really did help me relax and gain perspective. Best of all it showed me how to refresh my ‘self’ before any important event and in doing so free my mind from ‘chatter’ in order to ‘focus’ on the task in hand. The final evening when ‘I qualified’ rice was thrown , flowers exchanged and incense burned. All weird. My mantra was, I was told, my own and I should never reveal it to anyone- I have not. For the sake of my writings though let us assume it was ‘MMMM MMMM MMMM’.
Back at work twice a day I would take myself off to somewhere quiet in order to meditate. A church in the city was a favourite but all sorts of other places too. I felt calmer than for a very long time and I seemed able to deal with stress. John on the other hand had developed a blotchy face although in the end, encouraged by me, he did actually take himself off to an Ashram in India. The impact of which was incredible. I must just say here that John was in an impossible position he made a huge amount of money. He was in charge of the division that made a shed load of money which in truth his own contribution was marginal at best. He really did try to downplay his own importance. No one would listen. He now lives in the Channel Islands and is very very wealthy.
With all this as a back ground it is time to read about a cricket tour a truly wonderful one, it forms my next post.
Tales of a Life Well Lived 