The premise underlying and guiding this survey is that OCIO firms are competing based on their ability to deliver ‘outcomes’ for their clients. In seeking to deliver these outcomes, firms are designing more advanced strategies and increasing their use of more difficult to administer ‘alternative’ assets, leading to operational complexity that can constrain innovation and growth of the OCIO’s business.
The findings show the importance OCIO’s are now placing on technology, that it is now critical or significantly important to controlling operating risk. The findings also support the hypothesis that firms are, indeed, using more complex strategies to compete including their use of alternative assets, such as real estate and private equity.