Young Leaders Reflect on Building a Better Business
Jamie Jones Ezefili, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at Northern Trust weighs in
Originally posted on Investment Company Institute
During a panel at ICI’s Operations and Technology Conference—held concurrently with the 60th annual General Membership Meeting from May 22–May 24 in Washington, DC—three such leaders, representing a cross section of business areas, explored how their firms are rethinking legacy processes and moving into the future.
Client expectations about how a company conducts business are also undergoing a significant shift, explained Jamie Jones Ezefili, vice president of corporate social responsibility at Northern Trust. Clients want to learn information beyond a firm’s overall corporate social responsibility efforts to include specific details about, for example, its greenhouse gas emissions, employee engagement programs, and diversity initiatives. “It’s not enough anymore to say that we have a diversity strategy. [Clients] want to know what that is, and how we’re actually going to accomplish that,” said Jones Ezefili.
Attracting, Engaging, and Inspiring Top Talent
The changing, competitive marketplace is not just affecting client expectations—it’s also affecting how asset managers recruit and engage top employees, and how they develop new leaders. “We have to think about how we’re competing with the Googles and Facebooks out there,” explained Jones Ezefili. She said that this means creating an environment that employees want to be a part of.
