The most successful investment strategies are usually driven driving by one individual or a small group of people, says Summers.
“When you are running a fund in the fast-changing investment world, a management structure where decisions are made by an investment committee is often quite inflexible and doesn’t lead you to have the right level of nimbleness,” he believes.
The other side of the coin is of course the alleged key man risk. “This is an inevitable part of fund management. “What we really want to understand is whether the number two is appropriately prepared to take over if the lead manager is incapacitated,” he says.
“It would be quite difficult to invest in a fund where there wasn’t a robust process to manage the portfolio the absence of the lead manager.”
