Vikaas Sachdeva, Chief Executive Officer, Edelweiss Mutual Fund takes us through his journey in the mutual fund industry and what it takes to succeed in the investment management profession.
How do you start your day?
I’m an early riser and physical fitness is high on my priority. 5 am to 7 am is when I pack in a lot of physical exercises, yoga, running, and catching up on the newspapers before heading to office. It is a nice quiet personal time that allows me to evaluate the previous day as well as objectively plan the day ahead.
What is the best part of managing other people’s money?
The blueprint of the process itself is geared towards removing financial illiteracy. You will be surprised how the smartest and most educated people at times can be simply so casual about managing their own wealth. The key here is to enlighten them on what their money can do for them. This is when you hand hold them into converting their money into wealth and empower them to live their dreams. The joys these bring are of a different kind.
What is the scariest part of managing other people’s money?
The responsibility that it brings with it. People trust you with their hard earned money – it could be their life long savings, their daughter’s wedding expense pool or maybe even their retirement savings – there is never a margin of error with the emotions that come with these. Therefore living up to these expectations means shouldering a huge responsibility.
What attracted you to fund management?
It is a mix of multiple factors. The very fact that it is the most egalitarian and transparent manner to making money - anyone and everyone can participate and is more ‘inclusive’ in the true financial sense than a lot of other options. Besides this, fund management has a huge potential, especially considering the miniscule percentage of people actually investing in mutual funds, even a 1% target mean huge numbers across a wider regional reach.
Though a more personal reason is that this industry has probably the best mix of people with a high beta intelligence levels who are naturally prudent and this extends across the gamut of sales, compliance as well operations. And just being around with this peer set and the ‘differential thinking’ that it brings along is a motivation in itself.
What are the things required to succeed in the investment management field?
Success in this space does not have a ready reckoner but there are a few things that could almost be a mandatory steps that could make life smoother:
Start with passion – Being passionate about the work you do could be a norm in everything where you apply your efforts and time. But this is a field where you will definitely see cycles and it is extremely important to maintain an equal amount of intensity and passion through all cycles. This coupled with the requisite intelligence will surely take you through a lot of situations.
Humility – to not let success get into your head and being able to brace for the next turn of events. Equally important is to be able to change gears swiftly and when necessary.
Process orientation – This is a very compliance driven industry and following the rule book itself could help ensure a good hit rate on achievable targets. Getting a ‘buy in’ from the entire ecosystem on any project further helps enhance speedy implementation.
What is the best advice you ever got?
Though each person I’ve met has helped mould me into what I am and what I will be, the one thing that has endured and I truly believe in is to be confident about yourself and be optimistic about things around you - sooner or later you are bound to succeed.
Where do you invest your own money?
I am primarily invested in equity, and equity oriented mutual funds. Also I have invested in property, as part of an asset allocation.
What does money mean to you?
Money has always been equated with success. But to me, money is the means to live life the way you want. A means to an end – not the end itself and this philosophy drives me and never lets me get too attached to money.
How do you strike work life balance?
I try and enjoy whatever I do, every moment in life. When not at work I enjoy doing the small things in life. I am very experimentative in a very safe way. I love doing things differentially whether it be lending a voice to a cartoon character or doing a radio show or even being a voiceover artist or maybe even running a few extra miles on a weekend jog exploring a new alley, life’s brought me here and definitely has a much larger purpose ahead too. A clear understanding of this helps you put things into perspective. Also, I love reading, catching up on movies and that I do even when being driven round. It’s been a while I stopped watching television entirely and trust me, that itself has given me so much more time in life!
