by Timothy Butler | 4:32 PM May 2, 2007
Today’s Conversation Starter comes from Timothy Butler, Director of Career Development Programs at Harvard Business School, and author of Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths . We asked Butler to offer some advice for any would-be Warren Buffett’s planning to participate inBerkshire Hathaway’s open casting call for a new Chief Investment Officer.
Before you line up to replace Warren Buffett…
The Wall Street Journal lists a number of attributes that Mr. Buffett would like to see in his successor: “independent thinking, emotional stability, and a keen understanding of both human and institutional behavior”, not to mention a strong personal investment track record. Even if you feel that you fit this bill, there are a few other things you may want to consider before sending your resume on to Omaha.
The past seven years has seen a surge in interest in the investment management industry. This interest has been fueled in particular by the phenomenal growth of hedge funds. These funds gained attention during the 2000-2003 public market downturn when their hedging strategies allowed them to make impressive returns while most people were watching their mutual funds head south. I have seen this growing interest in investment management, and hedge funds in particular, among MBA students at the Harvard Business School. But, when these students come to me for career advice, I ask them to take a close look at the nature of the work itself, and at themselves.
Investment Management is heady stuff. Equity analysts and portfolio managers spend a lot of their time every day in front of a computer screen. They may be part of a team, or even head up a team, but at the core they are not “managers’ as we typically use that term. They are analysts and market experts, not day-to-day leaders of people. If you have what I refer to as a high need for “interpersonal transaction” — moving around a lot during the day, meeting and interacting with many different types of people, motivating, encouraging, mentoring, selling, etc. — investment management should probably not be your first choice. The people who like it most may enjoy working with other team members, but what they do and enjoy most is market analysis.
You might argue that working for Mr. Buffett is different. He owns whole companies and takes very large positions in others, so Berkshire Hathaway needs to stay very close to management in its portfolio companies. To a point, this is true. At the end of the day, however, a CIO is an analyst and a strategist. So please think about it. Are you an operating manager or a market expert?
TIMOTHY BUTLER
Timothy Butler is Director of Career Development Programs at Harvard Business School and author of Getting Unstuck: How Dead Ends Become New Paths.
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