A Day In The Life Of A Principal Business Strategist At Investment Management Company
James, a Principal Business Strategist, starts each day reviewing overnight communications before focusing on "creating a summary of an opportunity," including financial analysis and presentation preparation. A significant portion of the role involves influencing decisions through concise PowerPoint presentations, a format James acknowledges as both efficient and potentially limiting in its ability to convey nuanced information.
Communication, Financial Analysis, Presentation Skills, Strategic Decision-Making, Influencing
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
James Wallace
Principial Business Strategist
Investment Management Co.
Hiram College
Not Applicable
Mathematics, Data Science, Statistics
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Business Strategy
Video Highlights
1. James starts his day by reviewing emails and catching up on overnight developments.
2. A large part of his role involves influencing decisions by creating summaries of opportunities, conducting cost-benefit analyses, and presenting this information to his organization.
3. He emphasizes the importance of effective communication, highlighting the prevalent use of PowerPoint presentations for conveying ideas succinctly, while acknowledging its limitations in capturing nuanced details.
Transcript
The first thing in the morning, I like to get through all my email from the day before and overnight. Then, I address whatever's popped up that needs attention.
I spend a lot of my time as an influencer. A good part of my day is creating a summary of an opportunity, describing where we are in that opportunity.
Sometimes I do financial analysis, looking at cost-benefit. Then, I set up meetings and present that information to the organization. This allows us to collectively make a decision on which opportunities we want to pursue and which we don't.
Effective communication is a big part of that job. Generally nowadays, people want to see a PowerPoint, not a white paper. So I spend a lot of time putting together PowerPoint presentations.
The advantage of that is it forces you to condense your ideas into something very succinct, which is very effective. The downside is it can sometimes be at a surface level. If there are nuances that need to be communicated, PowerPoint's just not the way to do it.
But that's the state of the art today. Most people want a PowerPoint; they don't want to see a two-page memo.
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