I know...this is supposed to be my triathlon blog. But if you have been following, I have a touch of the lazy. And a sore knee. And work is super busy and incredibly stressful right now. But yet I find time to write on this blog....shhhh!!!
Anyway, I have this conference to go to next week. I got the itnerary today. And the dress codes. Yes...that was plural as each event has it's own dress code. Overall the code is "business casual". This could mean so many things. I have two dress codes....work wear & triathlon gear. There really is nothing in between. I do not own anything "formal".
We have been invited out to dinner to one of the fanciest restaurants in T.O. My manners are going to have to be in high gear. Hopefully, they will come back to me...which way does the fold of the napkin go on my lap? Nothing goes on the table...hands, elbows, purse, nothing. The soup spoon vs the desert spoon. Cut your meat with your right hand, then put the knife down, put the fork in the right hand...do this over and over and over again. Tiny "lady-like" bites. (To me this one, is a waste of time). Never cut your dinner roll. Tear a piece off. blah...blah...blah...
I bore you with this because when we show up from Saskatchewan, sometimes the high rollers think, act like we are straight off the farm. And there are some expectations when you go to a place like that. When we tell them how much money we manage...way out here in Toon Town...they nearly shit their pants. We are the largest firm with the largest dealer in Canada(yeah, right here in the middle of nowhere!) and they tend to trip over us when we show up. We have had so many invites to private dinners, I have lost count. Where were these guys when I was in high school....?
Anyway, here comes the vent. Guess who pays for these things....that's right...the investors.
Our clients.
If you own a mutual fund in Canada, you are paying management fees. Lots of those fees go to research, legal, computers, rent, staff etc...and some of those fees go to pay people like me. I think I deserve to get paid as I do a darn good job for my clients....but I don't need to be wisked around Toronto on their backs. And with the current state of the finanical markets, I am feeling a bit odd about the whole thing.
Of course, your thinking now "Then don't go....decline the invite."
Yes, that is certainly an option. However, 85% of my time in T.O. is in meetings with the very money managers that are responsible for those mutual funds. Not the sales guys...who come through town pretty much every month and I decline every golf invite, drink invite, supper invite, lunch invite, concert tickets etc.
I am only interested in talking to the men and women with their fingers on the trigger. The people making the decisions on what gets invested where and why. And with the size of our firm, we can get those meetings. And with the state of the markets, I think it is imperative that I go and pick their brains for a few days. It is easier/cheaper for me to fly out to Toronto from the investors perspective, than to fly those people out here. Just trying to do my part, however small it may be.
I just get annoyed when I hear others in my business talk/brag about all the "freebies" they get because it ain't free...your clients are the ones paying. Don't forget it.
Vent over.
3 comments:
Nice post Kelly, very thoughtful, given the markets lately. I'm one of those investors you were talking about. Lots of Canadian stuff, more international minus the US. Quite diversified. And no, I haven't sold. I try to convert the daily swings into a percent change instead of a points change.
I don't care about the odd swishy dinner for people like you. I don't care about the conferences being held in an expensive hotel as compared to the local Super8. These are smart, high powered people, managing a ton of money that makes the economy go around, and they deserve to be well paid. They need to talk to one another, build relationships. In the grand scheme of things, this is all small potatoes.
But, the outright fucking greed of those bastards that invent financial instruments so complicated that nobody understands them or their effect on the economy, and that internalize all profit while externalizing all risk and potential for loss, while paying themselves a salary and bonuses that makes pro sports athletes look like pikers, just sickens me. That isn't capitalism, that's theft, pure and complicated. These swindlers, because that's what they are, deserve to be stripped of everything they own and thrown naked into the streets.
and then beat.
Right on Keith! You nailed it EXACTLY!!!
You do your thing Kelly -- at least there are a few people out there like you...
:) :) :)
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