Sean M. Healey - Affiliated Managers Group, Inc.
Management
Yeah. Well, look, I think scale economies exist in parts of the industry; distribution, compliance, maybe some administrative functions are among them. And in those areas, we absolutely offer Affiliates the advantages of being part of a global scale asset management company. And we're in conversations building relationships with the largest, most important clients, and their constituents and advisors around the world. So while there's of course always more to be done, I think we're in a very good place in terms of exploiting those economies of scale. I think the more important point, which to us seems often lost in broader discussions about the benefits of consolidation is that in many areas of the industry, especially in alpha generation, it's not at all clear that scale is a benefit. And in fact, in many cases, you can see and imagine transactions that involve some integration, disturbing the operating and investment culture. And it seems to us to be, if you look across the history and the industry, quite rare that integration transactions actually result in better performance and to the contrary, most often, they result in worse performance. Of course, our model, our business strategy is predicated on preserving and protecting the independent operating and investment culture of our Affiliates and to maintain the very strong direct alignment that direct equity ownership brings with clients. And so, the elements of alpha generation, which in our view are most important, of course, it always requires execution. But if you don't start with a focused operating and investment culture, you don't start with direct alignment of interest, it becomes more challenging. And so for us, to sustain excellent results and re-allow for generation. So for us, we're quite confident that the structure and approach that we have, as you look forward and think about the industry's evolution where mediocre equity products, mediocre investment products generally are losing share to passive as they should, but simultaneously clients, both global institutional and retail, are increasingly focused on and investing in outstanding alpha-oriented products, including alternative products as a complement to that passive beta exposure. And so, for that universe of alpha-oriented products, in our view, you need to have the right ingredients. You need to have, of course, the right product set. But you need especially to have underlying firms, which are positioned as best they can in terms of alignment and focus to sustain alpha generation. And in that respect, scale is the enemy, not the friend.