What do you think?
Rate this book
Organizational Alpha: How to Add Value in Institutional Asset Management
Institutional investors spend the majority of their time in search of the Holy Grail of investment alpha, or risk-adjusted market outperformance. The problem is far too many organizations and funds fail to first understand whether or not they have what it takes to earn alpha or whether it even makes sense to try. Organizational alpha, on the other hand, is something every institutional investor and nonprofit can achieve, assuming they focus on what they can control and what matters. This book will show institutional investors, board members, trustees, consultants and beneficiaries how the concept of organizational alpha can help • Recognize the importance of goals-based investing. • Think in terms of process over outcomes. • Understand the fiduciary duty and what constitutes a breach of that duty. • Know the difference between a governing and managing fiduciary. • Define their overarching investment philosophy. • Make sense of the group dynamic at play when making decisions-by-committee. • Ensure more continuity in their investment program. • Improve their due diligence and decision-making processes. • Choose the right consultant or advisor to help oversee their assets. • Find additional sources of alpha. • Understand the alternative investment landscape. • Appreciate the differences between foundations, endowments, and pensions. • Document their investment process to cut down on unnecessary mistakes. • Make decisions that revolve around the goals and mission of the organization. • Set realistic expectations with the understanding that the future is always uncertain. Written by an institutional investor who has spent his entire career working with a wide range of institutional investors from endowments to foundations to pension plans to family offices and other nonprofits, Organizational Alpha is a manual that provides institutional investors with the tools they need to find success in the markets and as organizations.
90 pages, Paperback
Published February 2, 2017
15 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Ben Carlson
60 books53 followersBen Carson is the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management. The firm creates detailed investment plans and manage portfolios for institutions and individuals to help them achieve their goals.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 20, 2018
Institutional asset managers create value by taking risk, that is by making investments. The two dominating investment processes are asset allocation and the pursuit of alpha generation within asset classes. However, neither of these activities exists in a vacuum. Instead there is a supporting framework around them and this can add to investment returns or it can detract from it. The topic of Ben Carlson’s short 80-page book is how to make smart choices when constructing this framework.
Apart from being the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management, Carlson is an author of books and runs the perhaps most popular blog on asset allocation there is. He is certainly a very gifted writer who blends astute psychological wisdom, an ability to explain the complicated in plain words with a seemingly genuine interest for the wellbeing of his readers’ money. The combination is all too unusual.
The stated aim of the book is to help the 99%, i.e. the many small institutional investors that lack the resources of a PIMCO or a Yale Endowment. The author stresses the importance of not joining the hype of the “latest black” in the asset management business, that almost certainly is a rather complex construction with high fees. Nor should the small institution focus too much of its time on searching for alpha in securities selection.
To a large extent I agree in the quest of avoiding complexity. It results in fewer unintended consequences and frees up time to both focus on the long-term big issues and the attention to perfect the things that the organization actually has chosen to do. At the same time it is a balance where one shouldn’t entirely close one’s eyes for the fact that the knowledge of asset management is progressing. The trick is understanding the institutional hype cycle as asset managers are surprisingly fashion prone in how they work. To talk with Warren Buffet “What the wise man does in the beginning, fools do in the end”.
The book is choke full with intelligent and sensible opinions. You can sometimes judge the quality of a book by the amount of underlinings and scribbles in the margin. In this book it was hard since all text pretty much got underlined. My main objection is the structure – I don’t see it. The definition of organizational alpha seams to be very broad; basically anything in institutional asset management that isn’t the actual investment choices. Yet, some things that could be considered “organizational” like human resource management get little or no attention. Without a visible structure the book simply becomes too much a list of a few things that are good to think about if you are one of “the 99%”.
Also, chapter six is something of an outlier. The other chapters concern topics like the concept of fiduciary duty, the goals of the asset management, decision-making, developing an investment philosophy, the investment process and the use of consultants and external advisors. Chapter six is about alternative investments, or mainly about some pros and lots of cons of hedge funds and private equity. The thing is, alternative investments is one of many asset classes and admittingly it is diverse and important to discuss given its trendiness, but it still begs the question why there isn’t a chapter on commodities, bonds or equities?
Overall however this is a book that should be read. Ben Carlson shows a level-headedness that is atypical and hugely important when it comes to the area of asset management where too many intelligent people imitates strategies that, as the author puts it, won the last war.
Apart from being the Director of Institutional Asset Management at Ritholtz Wealth Management, Carlson is an author of books and runs the perhaps most popular blog on asset allocation there is. He is certainly a very gifted writer who blends astute psychological wisdom, an ability to explain the complicated in plain words with a seemingly genuine interest for the wellbeing of his readers’ money. The combination is all too unusual.
The stated aim of the book is to help the 99%, i.e. the many small institutional investors that lack the resources of a PIMCO or a Yale Endowment. The author stresses the importance of not joining the hype of the “latest black” in the asset management business, that almost certainly is a rather complex construction with high fees. Nor should the small institution focus too much of its time on searching for alpha in securities selection.
To a large extent I agree in the quest of avoiding complexity. It results in fewer unintended consequences and frees up time to both focus on the long-term big issues and the attention to perfect the things that the organization actually has chosen to do. At the same time it is a balance where one shouldn’t entirely close one’s eyes for the fact that the knowledge of asset management is progressing. The trick is understanding the institutional hype cycle as asset managers are surprisingly fashion prone in how they work. To talk with Warren Buffet “What the wise man does in the beginning, fools do in the end”.
The book is choke full with intelligent and sensible opinions. You can sometimes judge the quality of a book by the amount of underlinings and scribbles in the margin. In this book it was hard since all text pretty much got underlined. My main objection is the structure – I don’t see it. The definition of organizational alpha seams to be very broad; basically anything in institutional asset management that isn’t the actual investment choices. Yet, some things that could be considered “organizational” like human resource management get little or no attention. Without a visible structure the book simply becomes too much a list of a few things that are good to think about if you are one of “the 99%”.
Also, chapter six is something of an outlier. The other chapters concern topics like the concept of fiduciary duty, the goals of the asset management, decision-making, developing an investment philosophy, the investment process and the use of consultants and external advisors. Chapter six is about alternative investments, or mainly about some pros and lots of cons of hedge funds and private equity. The thing is, alternative investments is one of many asset classes and admittingly it is diverse and important to discuss given its trendiness, but it still begs the question why there isn’t a chapter on commodities, bonds or equities?
Overall however this is a book that should be read. Ben Carlson shows a level-headedness that is atypical and hugely important when it comes to the area of asset management where too many intelligent people imitates strategies that, as the author puts it, won the last war.
July 20, 2017
Good overview of some of the lessons on how better approaches to organisation and avoiding mistakes can help in asset management.
Don't cut loses too soon, stick to stated process, avoid too many consultants.
Don't cut loses too soon, stick to stated process, avoid too many consultants.
June 23, 2020
A must-read for anyone serving on investment committees for foundations, non-profits, etc. Excellent guide to the do's and don’ts surrounding the use of consultants, asset allocation, investment policy statements and many other issues facing overseers of endowment portfolios.
October 10, 2018
Excellent. Must read IMO for any investment advisor or financial planner. 👍👍
February 2, 2020
Good book if you are required to govern a fund, also for personal investing
August 11, 2025
4.2, solid overview of investing institutional dollars from ole BC
January 17, 2021
You don't need to be a company owner to read this book. A good book for an employee. Enjoy!
April 1, 2017
Fabulous book. As applicable to the individual investor as it it to the institutional investor.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews