Not much is certain in the financial industry. The only constant is change. We have been involved in bottom-up stock picking since the 1990s. As Portfolio Managers, we have conducted over 8000 company research meetings. From such experience, the one thing we are certain of is that no business is sustainable without producing customer satisfaction. In the asset management business, we define customer satisfaction as investment performance combined with organizational credibility. Four Seasons Asia Investment was founded to produce sustainable customer satisfaction though investment management. We make money only after our customers are satisfied, not the other way around.
All new employees go through a CEO lecture session on the 1st day they join. The key term they learn on day one is “fiduciary duty.”
Of course, the company needs a certain level of revenue to sustain and develop. However, those rewards must be gained after client satisfaction.
We also invest in middle and back office operations as well, since inefficient middle and back offices are costly not only to our own business operations, but to our clients as well. We do not prioritize a luxurious office, but instead focus on making sure our operations are efficient and based on integrity and regulatory compliance. Every action we take is taken for the sake of our clients.
We are a firm founded and led by investment managers. We are interested in sustainably generating significant returns and outperforming the market. We know that to achieve this we must be extraordinary. Just as athletes strive to win gold in the Olympics, we strive to be extraordinary in our investment performance regardless of market conditions. In the process of generating investment returns for our clients, we know that there will be losses (pain) as well as gains. Money can’t be the only reason to overcome the losses (pain). You have to love the business and be willing to sacrifice. This firm is run by managers like this. We measure our success by the duration of our relationships with each client, not simply by the size of our AUM. We focus on two core tenets: organizational credibility and investment performance.
Taking into account management fees, we understand that fund managers start with the odds stacked against them. Financial markets are a zero-sum game and continuous outperformance is only possible through other players’ underperformance. To maintain client satisfaction therefore requires extraordinary performance.
Our investment approach is designed to be extraordinary by playing in less crowded fields in order to avoid “sticking to the herd”. This is grounded in our humility, we do not think that we are smarter than others, that we will be the ones to outperform in crowded markets. We take the easier approach, looking to win because of probability and not self-confidence. We are not superhuman, and once you accept this fact, you can accept the mistakes you have made and aggressively seek remedies.
We are intellectually aggressive in searching for sources of return among neglected sectors and shares while avoiding over-crowded sectors. We do not need a superhero, our team consists of ordinary professionals who work in an extraordinary way with humility, intellectual honesty and aggressiveness.