April in Review: Key Insights from Industry Leaders
By Jack Sharry
We were showered in April with insights from an enterprising business school dean, a former Orion executive who’s made a career turn, and two entrepreneurs in the fast-growing alternative and private investments arena.
Creating Purpose-Driven Leaders with Brooke Elliot
Brooke Elliot, dean of Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, described the school’s mission to help students discover their passions and unlock the full potential of an undergraduate or graduate business education.
A few of Brooke’s key takeaways:
- Institutions must aim to offer learner-centric education.
- Education is the greatest investment that an individual can make in themselves and that an organization can make in an employee.
- Continuing education should be made possible for everyone who desires it and is committed to pursuing it.
Listen to Brooke’s episode here.
The Rise of Alternative Investments with Ryan Eisenman
Ryan Eisenman is co-founder and CEO of Arch, an administrative platform for alternative and private investments. Arch seeks to automate the bulk of the manual work—such as downloading reports and keying data into spreadsheets—that sometimes deters investors from taking advantage of investing in private companies.
In summary, Ryan said:
- Alts are not slowing down. In fact, they’re picking up.
- Client feedback is a valuable resource that should inform product development.
- Coordination across systems is the future of the wealth management industry.
Listen to Ryan’s episode here.
Delivering Alpha in Private Markets with Ryan VanGorder
Also in April, I interviewed Ryan VanGorder, the CEO of Opto Investments, a tech-driven company that provides retail investors, via advisors, with institutional-level investing options in the private markets.
Here’s some of the advice that Ryan shared with listeners:
- For retail investors, guided intelligence is available to allow advisors to apply institutional-type risk management.
- Customization enables the creation of “unique, proprietary diversified portfolios.”
- Automation provides the opportunity for advisors to scale their business without scaling their team.
Listen to Ryan’s episode here.
Strategies for Sustainable Business Growth with Randy Lambert
Randy Lambert is a former Orion executive who is now the EVP and head of RIA solutions at Intention.ly, a growth-and-marketing consultancy. Today, Randy is helping clients by combining his operations expertise with marketing technology.
According to Randy:
- Having a good technology strategy is key to scaling a business.
- “Working in silos is the biggest challenge with an RIA.” A good data model used across the entire organization is the best way to eliminate it
- “When a firm’s data is clean, structured, and fully integrated, technology stops being a barrier and it starts to become an enabler.”
Listen to Randy’s episode here.
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