The institutional drift problem nobody talks about:
Small fund → grows → suddenly serving 47 stakeholders → investing becomes product manufacturing.
The art dies. Clients get stuffed in the trunk. What was once a craft shop becomes a hot dog factory — packaging mystery meat into products nobody internally would touch.
This is how most asset managers decay:
• Investment edge → distribution machine
• Conviction → committee consensus
• Alpha generation → fee optimization
The irony? The bigger they get, the less they resemble what made them successful.
When a firm stops eating its own cooking, that's your exit signal.
Small fund → grows → suddenly serving 47 stakeholders → investing becomes product manufacturing.
The art dies. Clients get stuffed in the trunk. What was once a craft shop becomes a hot dog factory — packaging mystery meat into products nobody internally would touch.
This is how most asset managers decay:
• Investment edge → distribution machine
• Conviction → committee consensus
• Alpha generation → fee optimization
The irony? The bigger they get, the less they resemble what made them successful.
When a firm stops eating its own cooking, that's your exit signal.