Our CEO, Bertie Heyman, recently featured in the latest edition of the Drawdown magazine, providing his thoughts on how Private Markets businesses should structure their internal teams and why he believes that external support at key stages is the best route for businesses to take. Here’s what Bertie had to say
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It’s a significant statement of the obvious, but in today’s data-driven world, organisations that can harness data effectively gain a competitive edge. Data insights enable businesses to identify trends, spot opportunities (and threats) faster than the competition, and make decisions based on facts, not guesswork.
For businesses that operate in the private markets space, the need for robust, insightful and scalable data strategies has never been clearer. Yet, how you structure your people resource to ensure you optimise your approach is a challenge many continue to wrestle with. Let’s be blunt: your in-house technology team isn’t likely to have the required knowledge or bandwidth. Operating in a deeply competitive landscape, private markets players need constantly evolving expertise.
Hiring full-time resources is of course an option. Retaining your own team of data scientists, engineers and AI experts allows you to always have resource available and permits for a meaningful level of internal customisation. But hiring and retaining a team of people is an expensive business. Not only in terms of salaries, but also providing the necessary infrastructure, training and resources required by the team. Our experience, working with numerous private markets businesses across the globe, is that it is simply not economically viable for most businesses to do this.
Implementing a strategic data platform often comes in chunks, and typically an approach that combines significant peaks with substantial troughs is best suited. Because of this, private markets businesses need flexibility in their approach. Yes, you need expertise to make the most of opportunities, but I would argue that you don’t need it 24/7. And that, as you have probably guessed, is where organisations like ours come in.
At it|venture, we design and deliver strategic and scalable data platforms. By bridging the gap between private markets firms and technology, we solve problems. We make knowledge our business. We offer specialised expertise, a fresh perspective and, because we only work in the private markets arena, industry-specific knowledge. We equip our clients with cutting-edge solutions to both project and ‘business as usual’ problems. Our proprietary toolkit specifically addresses issues such as configuration, system upgrades, application integration, data migration and cleansing, testing, data visualisation and dashboards, and business intelligence.
Of course, people management, like so much of life, is never really just black and white. There is often a middle ground that provides the optimal combination of in-house and external provision. For a good proportion of our clients, we provide just this, augmenting their internal teams, allowing them to operate a lean full-time resource, with external expertise that can be called upon as and when needed. And that can be on a project-by-project basis or through more regular, structured support.
For private markets businesses, finding the sweet spot when it comes to managing your complete data management resource is crucial. Our advice is pragmatic and always rooted in ensuring you develop and maintain the very best approach for you. If you’d like to discuss how we can help you optimise your business performance, we’d be only too happy to talk.
