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Product Development is Growing Up

by Anu

Recently, Paul Atkins, SEC Commissioner, spoke up for Asset Managers to develop a product czar. He specifies this role as a person with cross-divisional responsibilities. The czar would align ideas and trends from Investment Management, anecdotal input from Sales, market analysis from Marketing, fiscal concerns within Corporate Finance, flexibility and capacity within Trading and Markets, and other areas.

At kasina, we could not agree more. In our Rethinking Product Development research, few of the 20+ US and Canadian Product Development teams provide for this role.

Isn't this czar another step to improved enterprise-wide risk management? Instead of relying on alignment from water-cooler meetings and quarterly summits with over-packed agendas, a dedicated resource - with alignment goals - will reduce the expensive and potentially harmful launches of ill-conceived products. For a new product to have a chance at success, the firm needs alignment from numerous business units.

Additionally, the czar becomes the go-to resource on SEC regulations and processes for new registered products. And, over time, they would provides Sales, Marketing, and the Office of the CEO reliable and predictable dates for SEC approvals and therefore enabling properly timed sales training, on-time marketing development, and appropriate resource management. All this sounds like precise risk-management with an eye to lower overall new product launch cost, therefore saving the investor basis points.