This hedge fund CEO extols the virtues of challenging conversations in the workplace

08/28/2024, 7:15 AM
fastcompany.com

Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.

Almost all articles and commentaries about Robyn Grew—including this one—note that she is the first woman and openly gay executive to ascend to the CEO role at Man Group, the largest publicly traded hedge fund company.

Grew, who took the reins in September 2023, embraces her trailblazer status. In a recent interview with Modern CEO, she calls her professional journey in financial services “unconventional”—she worked as a barrister early in her career—and says that lens makes her open to hiring and elevating people from different backgrounds, which she views as a competitive advantage for Man Group. “Brilliance doesn’t come from just one place,” she says. “It doesn’t come in one form. It doesn’t come from one university. It doesn’t come from one country. There is a richness that comes in the conversation from the people who sit at the back of the bus and the front of the bus and the middle of the bus and outside of the bus. And I want all of that, and yes, it’s absolutely an advantage.”

A quest for what’s next

Man Group board member Ceci Kurzman concurs that Grew, who has held leadership roles at the company since 2010, has created a diverse and welcoming work environment at the company, but stresses that Grew earned the top job because of her tech and investing prowess.

Under Grew, Man Group has reorganized its technology teams and created dedicated data science and artificial intelligence (AI) teams that are working on projects to enhance client experiences and improve operational efficiency at the company. The firm is working to unify and integrate AI in its trading systems. And Grew is looking at ways to leverage Man Group’s academic advisory network to deliver customized research to clients through its solutions business. During Grew’s tenure as CEO, assets under management have grown from $161 billion at the end of September 2023 to $175 billion.

“A lot of ink gets spilled about [Grew] being a woman, LGBTQ, and a driver of culture,” Kurzman says. “She is those things. She is also a master strategist with a vision on how to innovate and grow a business that outperforms in the alternative investment sector.”

Innovation’s enemy

Grew’s version of a diverse culture is one where groupthink is verboten. And while some organizations struggle to manage differences or encourage candid conversations in the workplace, Grew says it’s essential to the success of Man Group, where ideas are important.

Grew says she recently conducted a fireside chat at a client event with Louis Theroux, a documentary filmmaker whose subjects have included Scientologists and modern-day Nazis. Grew says she wanted to understand how he picks his subjects, how he gains their trust, and how he is able to listen to opposing views. She sees parallels in his work and the curiosity she’s trying to instill at Man Group. “If you are so closed-minded that you can’t hear the other side, however difficult or foreign that might be, then you lose the thing that makes you better at what you do, more well-rounded, and able to understand the world from different perspectives.

“We have to be open at a time when you are asked to choose a side and double down,” she says. “The most unconventional thing about [me] is that I refuse to do that. I create a space where that isn’t the norm. I want us to be challenged because we are better for it.”

How does your company promote idea diversity?

Does your organization have a culture that empowers employees to challenge the status quo? How do you encourage diverse thinking? Send your recommendations to me at [email protected]. I’d like to share the best ideas in a future newsletter.