Ep11: Nick Kirrage - Drawn to the difficult: the values of value investing

Welcome back to Being Invested, where we explore the personal stories of the people who make the markets. My guest this time is Nick Kirrage, co-head of the Global Value Team at Schroders, and it’s a really fun conversation.

Nick is one of those people who takes on difficult things with a light touch. He has a contagious enthusiasm and openness about how human emotion – his own included – can be the curse of the investor but how acting with awareness of this can generate reliable returns time and again. Nick and I explore how AI might change this pattern, the investing rules he follows and which ones he’s left behind, as well as how an unexpected turn into the marketing department early on in his career has helped him succeed in running a market-leading investment team. You will take away thoughtful insights into the enduring tenets of value investing and what it takes personally to remain a contrarian.

Nick studied aeronautical engineering at Bristol, but got hooked on investing during university and started his career at Schroders as a graduate, ultimately co-founding the Global Value Team in 2013. He and his team now manage more than GBP11bn in assets for clients in the UK and around the globe. Alongside value investing, Nick has embraced other endurance challenges – including the Marathon de Sables, cycling the length of the country, and now participating in ÖTILLÖ Swimrun. When he’s not holding his nerve in the markets or on a chilly starting line, he might have drumsticks in his hand, as he has recently taken up drumming. Nick cares deeply about the future of the UK as a dynamic global financial centre and is actively involved in a number of initiatives, including the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce, to encourage regulation and policy to support the continued strength and growth of the investment industry here. I hope you enjoy the podcast.

WHAT'S IN STORE

• “Don't fall in love with stocks because they can't love you back.”
• “(CEOs) are …the most compelling salespeople in their business: they've made it up the pyramid. They're good at telling a story. I've been in thousands of management meetings, and no manager ever said to me, “Nick, I just want you to know, this is a terrible business, and or our stock price is horribly overvalued.” … And both those things have been true many times. So, you've got to understand what that meeting with a CEO is.”
• “I don't think for any role, you need to change who you are, but what you do need is a very, very healthy dose of self awareness.” 
• “It is a superpower to not have assumed wisdom, to not come with legacy bias and views.”
• “When you understand what might go wrong, you can in some ways ameliorate that with contingency. You can think: is that a risk worth taking to achieve our objective? So, red teaming is built in as part of our process.”
• “If you go and ask people to pick the 20 worst investments in the stock market, it can be quite embarrassing. This is a game where the process is disproportionately important, because it's a game of fine margins.”

FAVOURITES

Book: Amy Edmondson’s books – including ‘Right Kind of Wrong’ ‘The Fearless Organization' and ‘Teaming'

Music: 'Hold the Line' by Toto, anything Aerosmith

Quote: “When a management with a reputation for great execution in an industry with a reputation for terrible returns meet, it's the industry that leaves with its reputation intact.” Warren Buffett

Podcast: The Value Perspective by Schroders

GRATITUDE

Sound: Alexander Russell, Design: Sophie Hardy, Music: Tom McKean

I'd love your feedback, and if you'd like to suggest a guest, please message me on LinkedIn.

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