Front row seat in battle of Talent and Capital – Daily Newsletter

Published on:

09 Jun 2014, 9:09 am

Hi there,

During the next two days I'll be getting a front row seat in an event highlighting one of the major trends sweeping the world. It's facilitating a series of panels for the Met CI annual event showing off its partnerships with investment boutiques – the preferred route for many of the best money managers.

Allan Gray was an oddity when he left Fidelity in 1969 to found his now hugely successful value investment house. Less so Piet Viljoen's departure from Investec 11 years ago to create RECM. Nowadays, seeing top performers like Cy Jacobs, Delphine Govender, Charles Booth and Adrian Clayton in their own investment boutiques is becoming more norm than exception.

They are flag-bearers in the intensifying global tussle between talent and capital. From sport and investment banking through to the legal profession, in the ultimate reflection of meritocracy, talented people have been demanding – and getting – a better shake. The momentum is gathering in South Africa's investment field. And elsewhere. Eventually, talent will always trump capital. In the same way human ingenuity bests any inanimate resource.

Best,
Alec