(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Webster’s dictionary defines bipolarity as “characterized by two directly opposing opinions, natures, etc.” Three years after the mega-merger that created Standard Life Aberdeen Plc, it’s still trying to cure itself of just such an affliction. New chief executive officer, Stephen Bird, needs to get the firm pulling in a common direction.
(彭博社观点)——韦伯斯特词典对“两极分化”的定义是“以两种直接对立的观点、性质等为特征”。标准人寿阿伯丁公司(Standard Life Aberdeen Plc)的超大合并已经过去三年了，但它仍在试图从这种痛苦中治愈自己。新任首席执行官斯蒂芬•伯德(Stephen Bird)需要让公司朝着一个共同的方向前进。
Since taking over at the start of September, Bird worked quickly to demarcate the U.K. asset management company’s businesses into four areas — global asset management, fund adviser platforms, strategic partnerships, and retail savings and wealth. Each division has its own leadership and, importantly, growth targets. With the relentless industrywide pressure on fees and income showing no signs of abating, a shrinking asset manager can rapidly become an unviable one.
自9月初接管以来，伯德迅速将这家英国资产管理公司的业务划分为四个领域——全球资产管理、基金顾问平台、战略伙伴关系和零售储蓄和财富。每个部门都有自己的领导层，更重要的是，还有增长目标。随着整个行业对费用和收入的无情压力丝毫没有减弱的迹象，一家不断萎缩的资产管理公司可能会迅速变成一家无法生存的公司。
Next up on Bird’s to-do list: sorting out the marketing. The company currently has six brands, each with its own website. That’s arguably five brands too many, diluting the prestige that should flow from almost two centuries as a steward of other people’s money. The confusing stable includes both the Standard Life Aberdeen and Aberdeen Standard Investments monikers, as well as the utterly unmemorable 1825 trademark referencing the firm’s year of establishment. The more than 600 individual funds available could also benefit from judicious pruning.
伯德的下一个任务是:解决市场营销问题。该公司目前有六个品牌，每个都有自己的网站。可以说，这五个品牌太多了，稀释了近两个世纪以来作为他人财富管理者应该产生的威望。这一令人困惑的资产包括标准人寿Aberdeen和Aberdeen Standard Investments的名字，以及完全不令人难忘的1825年商标，它指的是该公司成立的年份。现有的600多只个人基金也可能受益于明智的修剪。
Although the company was a frontrunner in identifying the importance of scale, it’s fumbled its execution of the merger. Combining two cultures was never going to be easy, but it was made harder by the initial mistake of installing co-chief executive officers, Standard Life’s Keith Skeoch and Aberdeen’s Martin Gilbert. That produced what one insider called a “Noah’s Ark” approach to decision making that tried to keep both camps happy instead of following business logic.
尽管该公司在认识到规模的重要性方面走在了前列，但它在合并的执行上却很笨拙。合并两种文化从来都不是一件容易的事，但任命联席首席执行官——标准人寿(Standard Life)的基思•斯奇(Keith Skeoch)和阿伯丁(Aberdeen)的马丁•吉尔伯特(Martin Gilbert)——这一最初的错误让合并变得更加困难。这产生了一种被一位内部人士称为“诺亚方舟”(Noah’s Ark)的决策方式，试图让双方阵营都满意，而不是遵循商业逻辑。
That blurred vision and hurt morale. A survey just after the merger showed only about half of the staff felt positive about going to work, with a fifth feeling negative. Returns for investors suffered. In 2018, about half of funds under management lagged their relevant benchmarks measured over three years. In 2019, 40% of them still underperformed.
模糊了视线，伤害了士气。合并后的一项调查显示，只有大约一半的员工对上班持积极态度，五分之一的人持消极态度。投资者的回报受到了影响。2018年，管理下的基金中约有一半落后于3年来的相关基准。2019年，其中仍有40%表现不佳。
Customers have pulled money out of the firm every year since 2016, with assets dropping to 512 billion pounds ($695 billion) by the middle of this year, well short of the $1 trillion club the merger was designed to qualify for.
自2016年以来，客户每年都在从公司撤资，到今年年中，公司资产降至5,120亿英镑(6,950亿美元)，远低于合并计划要求的1万亿美元。
Chairman Douglas Flint cleaned house after arriving in early 2019. Gilbert quickly relinquished his seat, and in June this year Skeoch announced his departure.
董事长道格拉斯·弗林特(Douglas Flint)在2019年初上任后进行了整顿。吉尔伯特很快放弃了他的职位，今年6月，斯奇宣布离开。
Bird, a veteran of more than two decades at Citigroup Inc., seems to have the right background to succeed. A Scot, he built the U.S. bank’s wealth business in Asia and headed its consumer banking unit. Since he joined Standard Life Aberdeen, investors have driven the share price up by more than 25%, outpacing gains at rival firms including Schroders Plc, Amundi SA and DWS Group GmbH.
在花旗集团(Citigroup Inc.)工作了20多年的Bird似乎拥有成功的合适背景。作为一名苏格兰人，他建立了美国银行在亚洲的财富业务，并领导了消费银行部门。自从他加入标准人寿安本以来，投资者已经将该公司股价推高了25%以上，涨幅超过了施罗德集团(Schroders Plc)、Amundi SA和DWS Group GmbH等竞争对手。
His experience will be valuable. With individuals taking more responsibility for building their own old-age savings, fund management firms are in a race to build the best mousetrap to win that business by selling products either directly to retail clients or via their financial advisers.
他的经验将是宝贵的。随着个人对建立自己的养老储蓄承担更多责任，基金管理公司正在竞相打造最好的捕鼠器，通过直接向零售客户或通过理财顾问销售产品来赢得这一业务。
But it’s an increasingly crowded marketplace. Schroders displaced Standard Life as the U.K.’s biggest standalone investment company by assets earlier this year, and it’s teamed up with Lloyds Banking Group Plc to target well-heeled Brits. And U.S. behemoth Vanguard Group Inc. is moving Brent Beardsley, its head of strategy, to London next year to head its direct-to-consumer business as it scents opportunity in the growing U.K. pensions market.
但这是一个日益拥挤的市场。今年早些时候，施罗德取代标准人寿(Standard Life)，成为英国按资产计最大的独立投资公司，它还与劳埃德银行集团(Lloyds Banking Group Plc)联手，瞄准英国富人。美国巨头先锋集团(Vanguard Group Inc.)将于明年将战略主管比尔兹利(Brent Beardsley)调往伦敦，负责其直接面向消费者的业务，因为该公司嗅到了不断增长的英国养老金市场的机遇。
More than half of the U.K.’s 27,000 financial advisers use Standard Life’s Wrap or Elevate investment platforms to service their clients, giving it leverage in that market. Aberdeen Standard Capital manages about 8 billion pounds directly for affluent customers and the company’s 1825 service offers investment advice. Now it needs to target the mass market through better branding and marketing as well as improved technology to make it easier for individuals to keep track of investments and to entice them with new products.
英国2.7万名金融顾问中有一半以上使用标准人寿(Standard Life)的Wrap或Elevate投资平台为客户提供服务，使其在该市场拥有优势。阿伯丁标准资本(Aberdeen Standard Capital)直接为富裕客户管理着约80亿英镑的资金，该公司1825年推出的服务还提供投资建议。现在，它需要通过更好的品牌和营销，以及改进的技术来瞄准大众市场，让个人更容易跟踪投资，并用新产品吸引他们。
An expansion in the fast-growing passive products market is overdue. Skeoch had zero interest in growing the low-margin business that relies so much on economies of scale. But with demand for index trackers heading in one direction, Bird has acknowledged the firm needs to offer a full suite of services. Exchange-traded funds, including actively managed ETFs, are liquid, transparent and cost-effective wrappers to deliver new investment themes to customers, Bird says.
快速增长的被动产品市场早就该扩张了。斯科奇对发展这种非常依赖规模经济的低利润率业务毫无兴趣。但鉴于市场对指数追踪器的需求正朝着一个方向发展，伯德承认，该公司需要提供一整套的服务。伯德表示，交易所交易基金(etf)，包括积极管理的交易所交易基金(etf)，是流动性、透明度和成本效益高的包装，可以向客户传递新的投资主题。
Both corporate morale and investment performance were improving before Bird took charge. Almost three-quarters of employees said in July they were proud to work for the company, with only 7% saying they felt negative. The portfolio managers have got their mojo back. At the half-year point, two-thirds of funds managed were beating their indexes.
在伯德上任之前，企业士气和投资业绩都在改善。今年7月，近四分之三的员工说，他们为能在这家公司工作感到自豪，只有7%的人说他们感到消极。投资组合经理们又找回了他们的魔力。在这半年的时间里，三分之二的基金跑赢了它们的指数。
But at about 6.2 billion pounds, Standard Life Aberdeen’s current market capitalization is half what it was at the time of the merger. Bird has a long road ahead if he’s to restore all of that shareholder value.
但Standard Life Aberdeen目前的市值约为62亿英镑，只有合并时的一半。如果伯德想要恢复所有股东的价值，他还有很长的路要走。
Mark Gilbert is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering asset management. He previously was the London bureau chief for Bloomberg News. He is also the author of "Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable."
马克•吉尔伯特(Mark Gilbert)是彭博社(Bloomberg)资产管理领域的观点专栏作家。他之前是彭博新闻伦敦分社社长。他也是《同谋:贪婪和合谋如何使信贷危机不可阻挡》一书的作者。