Investment management companies are facing new threats and uncommon opportunities in a post-pandemic business environment. 2024 was a mixed year where flows into alternative investments slowed and outflows from mutual funds continued as ETFs gained momentum.
Firms worked to navigate a shifting industry environment characterised by evolving investor preferences, shrinking profit margins, sustained high interest rates and escalating regulatory demands. In the face of this difficult operating environment, many firms are reconsidering larger M&A deals in favour of smaller, more tactical ones. They are also seeming to be more selective regarding transformation initiatives with an eye toward shorter duration projects that balance cost cutting with innovation. Meanwhile, fresh challenges are affecting talent models, company purpose, workplace settings and environmental, social & governance (ESG) mandates.
The maturity of a firm’s technology development affects how well its vision and strategies can be executed. Moving forward, product innovation and impactful customer experiences are likely to remain the leading drivers of growth. Accordingly, firms will likely have to find a way to invest in technology and associated controls even amid weak performance and margin pressures. Without the right technologies and matching processes and controls, investment managers could fall short of client expectations and internal efficiency goals.
The Deloitte 2024 Investment Management Outlook presents several forces driving industry change. Explore the Outlook and this document to discover what sets Workday apart as the leading cloud solution for enabling investment management firms to navigate this change. Among the advantages afforded by Workday are the ability to augment their business capabilities and standardise their data models, which lays the foundation for delivering greater business insight, enhancing cost transparency and advancing artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) solutions.