Eduardo Gramuglia (State Street): solving the alpha conundrum 

After living in countries like Uruguay, Italy, Luxembourg and the UK, Eduardo Gramuglia finally returned to the grand duchy and made it his home. Eduardo Gramuglia, now the country head at State Street Bank International’s Luxembourg branch, says developing a close and enduring relationship with clients is central to helping them fulfil their strategy. 

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What are your priorities in your new role? 

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I focus mostly on people — both colleagues and clients. Internally, I need to make sure that our people are aligned, especially when they interact with our clients. Our company has an extensive footprint across the world, so it is critical to be able to bring it all together for our clients in a clear way: we have to deliver a single State Street! Our mission statement, which is reflected in our logo of a clipper ship, is to help our clients navigate their own strategy, new regulations and a fast-changing world. The fund industry remains a people business, and my goal for State Street is to be a trusted partner. 

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“Our mission statement is to help achieve better outcomes for the world’s investors and the people they serve.”

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Which opportunities do you identify? 

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There are many! In the context of growth in Luxembourg, I believe in the virtues of working more closely with our clients and with our employees, both here in the grand duchy and across the whole State Street network. Despite being acquainted with the topic, not many clients and colleagues can always have a meaningful discussion. For example, about Luxembourg in general or the best way to launch a Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (RAIF). An asset manager doesn’t necessarily know all the implications. There is nothing more valuable than being the trusted partner of a client at the start of a new project. Living in South America, Rome, London and here, I discovered something universal about communication: if you want people to understand the true value that you can bring to asset managers, you need to say it, say it again and say it one more time! 

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How important are sales in the fund industry today? 

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If you look at my personal journey, I started in operations — talking with brokers, doing cash controls and so on, which allows me today to consider both sides of the business. Later, I worked on standardisation to enable clients to control all processes from one place. Then I moved into relationship management. The sales side was the later part of my career and I happened to enjoy it. To me, sales is about creating a strategy with your clients on how to grow and execute on it, while having a deep understanding of the technical aspects of both our businesses. Very often, we come to know them really well, so we are able to explain the external technicalities and where they can find the solution internally. Ultimately, this is the key to generate alpha! It certainly requires a long-term vision and commitment, often changing the target operating model, but working at State Street allows us to offer products that are fit-for-purpose, together with a strong commitment to delivering over the long term. 

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Marketing Communication

The information contained in this communication is not a research recommendation or ‘investment research’ and is classified as a ‘Marketing Communication’ in accordance with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (2014/65/EU) or applicable Swiss regulation. This means that this marketing communication (a) has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research (b) is not subject to any prohibition on dealing ahead of the dissemination of investment research.

The views expressed in this material are the views of Eduardo Gramuglia Pallavicino through the period ended 03/28/2021 and are subject to change based on market and other conditions.