Large asset managers dominate company shareholdings and news headlines with their approaches to engagement. Midsize asset managers can stand out by innovating and leveraging the best available technology to showcase and optimise their stewardship efforts.
Stewardship drives value for Midsize Asset Managers:
Stewardship and ESG are intrinsically linked, helping investors and asset managers to influence the activities of investee companies. Effective stewardship, though requiring investment, can be an immensely powerful tool for engineering long-term shareholder value.
The biggest asset managers wield vast resources to build their own in-house stewardship tools or amass multiple external platforms. In contrast, midsize managers need to adopt more strategic approaches to stewardship.
The Stewardship Tools Cost-Benefit Calculator demonstrates the value of using advanced Stewardship Solutions when conducting engagement activities.
The benefits of stewardship are realised over years, not months. Building engagement data over a sustained period helps midsize managers identify historic patterns. This information helps them to design engagement strategies for the future.
Clients use the Maanch Engagement Tracker to track engagement activities like emails, meetings, and letters, alongside measurable outcomes and follow-ups. Having this data in a secure cloud-based location is useful when it comes to producing user-friendly client and regulatory reports.
Personalised, data-driven engagement for a competitive edge:
Big asset managers tend to rely on one-size-fits-all approaches to engagement. Midsize managers can exploit gaps left by their larger competitors and differentiate themselves using bespoke, data-driven strategies. Managers need data to identify material risks and measure engagement outcomes against set KPIs.
The Maanch Engagement Tracker helps clients create direct engagement campaigns. Users can link proxy votes with engagements, building a complete picture of their interactions with investee companies. Clients can also migrate their historic data into the software, so that they don’t need to start afresh when logging into Maanch Engagement Tracker for the first time.
This informed approach to stewardship resonates well with clients and portfolio companies. Managers can demonstrate that they have done their homework and achieved their goals with stewardship.
Innovation overcomes resource constraints:
Asset managers face external and internal pressure over the fees that they charge to clients. Midsize asset managers have leaner budgets and smaller teams than the titans of industry.
Stewardship teams have to show they can deliver sustained returns on investment in software. Experts need to demonstrate that their engagement strategies are linked to overarching investment goals.
The ongoing migration in stewardship from spreadsheets to sophisticated technology demonstrates perfectly the case for investing in software now.
Many midsize teams still track their engagement activities across multiple spreadsheets. This leaves them vulnerable to errors, delays and fragmented delays as the frequency of their stewardship activities grows.
Tracking multiple spreadsheets increases the risk of version control issues, data inconsistencies, and errors, which can delay reporting and compromise decision-making.
Analysts are forced to spend hours consolidating their engagement reports. This eats into the time they need to make strategic decisions and weakens the overall case for stewardship. Frustration builds within teams, as stewardship experts spend time performing administrative tasks instead of doing the work they love.
A switch to software like the Maanch Engagement Tracker will help teams that have to keep an eye on their costs. Instant, accurate report generation affords analysts the time to do the stewardship work that creates genuine value for clients.
When it comes to stewardship, size isn’t everything. Midsize managers can use technology to engage efficiently with companies and secure results. Cutting-edge software is emerging as an essential stewardship tool.
If you would like a demonstration of the Maanch Engagement Tracker, please book an introduction with our founder and chief executive officer Darshita Gillies via this link.
