In Chinese, the word crisis can be represented in two characters. One represents “Danger” and the other represents “Opportunity”. The fifth annual independents’ day conference gave glimpse into the Opportunity we now face. Over the past many years the Investorside Research Association(http://www.investorside.org/ ) has gathered the right set of members, tools and representations to become Wall Street’s best kept secret for independent, un-biased research to represent real “alpha” opportunities for clients. Karvy Global Services is a member of the association and we are the sole representation of the Knowledge Process Outsourcing Industry in this forum.
This year’s venue was the Bloomberg conference hall. If you need to see a bustling business house with promise of opportunity and hallmarks of growth, the Bloomberg office is the place to be. The plush office interiors, the vibrancy in the employees and the general ambience were a perfect setting for a discussion on the next generation of research on the street. The conference was divided into keynotes and interactive presentations. The session was kicked off by Rich Leggett of BIA. Rich used baseball to express his ideas on new beginnings and opportunity for IRP’s to make the perfect strikes. It’s a pity the Yankees did not get off to a great start!
The tempo continued with some great sessions which included a discussion with Gasparino of CNBC and a great panel on Expert Networks. The break out sessions focused on the relevant market topics like the future of Credit Markets and John Eade’s presentation on a great model for sourcing alternative research. John was also honored as the Chairman Emeritus of the Investorside Research Association. John, can’t thank you enough for the great work you have put in.
I met with some really interesting companies and analysts. Especially interesting was the discussion with Greenwich Consultants (a boutique IRP) that clocked 8% returns in 2008 and whose biggest concern was a lack of sales and marketing. Goes to show that some of these firms really are best kept secrets.
I came across some interesting quotes and snippets in the session. Some of them are:
• World Governments combined today own 25% of the world’s financial services market.
• IBM researcher believes that the two key factors that led to the global financial debacle are complications in “Integration” (aka bundling of economies, flat world etc) and “instrumentation” (derivatives, cdo’s etc)
• 50% of the world’s net worth has been destroyed in the current financial market turmoil.
• Its also note worthy that crises led by banks are twice as painful and twice as long as other recessions.
• A gem from Gasparino: “ Geithner does not have staff because Obama has set the ethical standards so high that he cant hire anyone from Wall Street”.
• A quote on financial services “ In this industry change happens one funeral at a time”
Overall Atul and I had a great day at this session. One individual whom we would like to specially recognize for this effort is our good friend Pat Shea. His unwavering commitment to Investorside and making this conference a success is a testament to the force he brings to the table masked behind his affable demeanor. Cheers Pat!
About The Blogger:
The writer leads the client relationships for Karvy Global Services. He can be reached at uday.kumar@karvyglobal.com
