Regardless of how successful a broker is, it is a certainty that their internal teams will change over time. Whether it be market cycles, business decisions, expansion or consolidation – teams evolve as the business develops.
A veteran financier once told me that “a company is only as good as its team”, a remark that seems to become truer every year.
In dynamic environments like retail trading, market cycles affect talent placement, which can often mean experienced professionals transition to parallel industries such as technology suppliers, liquidity providers or banks.
Successful brokers will not only hire talent, they will also retain it. To do so, brokers must start with a bright and engaging vision, develop a conducive working environment, and be able to fund their ambitions for a considerable time. In the embryonic stages of a broker’s development, every employee must understand and buy into the company’s vision, fostering a sense of shared responsibility and creating shared goals.
Talent will only arrive if incentivized and it will only stay if incentives are delivered.
Hiring the right people remains a challenging task. Whether conducted internally or outsourced to a recruiter, recruitment is always challenging as evidenced by elevated staff turnover rates at many brokers.
Standard necessities include education, experience, key skills, regional factors and cultural adaptability to the broker’s working environment. However, each broker will likely have several particular considerations given their vision.
The Art of Dealing
It is important to emphasize that dealing should be managed by an experienced, educated, and well-organized individual. They need to understand risk management and technology, but more importantly, they need to operate within established policies and procedures.
Even today, dealing desks often operate without essential policies for navigating tough market conditions, otherwise known as a market risk policy.
The Chief Dealer should be a logical thinker with strong leadership skills, especially in today’s all-hours environment, be adept at training staff (with documented procedures), exhibit resilience during shifts, and uphold accountability. All dealing desk activity should always be thoroughly documented.
The Dealing Head should not hesitate to liaise directly with the risk committee and should recognize when to seek assistance. They should stay up-to-date and have a clear plan in advance. Since many dealing managers are responsible for new products, they should be knowledgeable in shares, options, futures, and crypto, as standard.
The Joy of Marketing
The Marketing Chief should be a creative yet resilient individual. They must understand the delicate nuance between online and offline marketing while devising comprehensive and engaging strategies for both.
If a marketing chief doesn’t have a plan, alarm bells should be ringing. Competency necessarily includes being able to delve into their plans and explaining every detail.
More broadly, their communications should be simple, concise and well-structured, focusing on results and maintaining deadlines. While they may often follow a waterfall model, they should remain agile at heart, as many things can go awry in Marketing.
A marketing leader should motivate their team but always take responsibility for the department’s performance. As part of their day-to-day operations, they must identify the right KPIs and, by liaising with other departments, evaluate performance daily rather than monthly.
Finding suitable action-oriented marketing personnel is challenging. They should not fear venturing into new markets, travelling, or taking calculated risks. Moreover, they should be prepared to develop and enhance their professional skills and abilities, including learning about fresh innovations such as AI and automation.
The Necessity of IT
The IT department should ideally split into two distinct branches: software and hardware. The IT Chief should understand both areas and be able to perform complex programming and coding tasks if and when required.
In today’s ultra-competitive retail trading industry, the leading IT role cannot forego having programming knowledge. The Chief should oversee development and adhere to sprint methodologies with rigorous testing protocols. They should also comprehend how the infrastructure operates and perpetually support all other departments.
The IT Chief must stay updated with new technologies and how they affect the broker’s key businesses. Regular audits should be routine. At the same time, project management protocols should be closely followed and regularly evaluated. The manager should ensure all staff are provided with suitable training and establish role-dependent KPIs instead of setting individual targets.
Lastly, the IT Chief should implement appropriate disaster recovery (D&R) measures and devise effective communication strategies tailored to events. The IT department should support products without waiting for products to report to them.
Ultimately, in the world of online trading, IT serves as the backbone of operations.
Connecting the Puzzle Pieces
When considering a broker’s core departments, fostering strong working relationships between department heads and company owners is best. All leaders in a position of power and influence must be capable of standing on their own two feet and, therefore, contribute to successful operations with confidence.
As is the tendency in the Middle East, brokers should be client-focused and prioritise client relationships, steering clear of politics and unnecessary arguments. For example, brokers should refrain from calling their clients “customers”. As a gentle reminder, customers are one-off transactors. Clients do business regularly and expect a higher level of service than a customer would.
In my book, “BECOME YOUR OWN LEADER”, I delve into the intricacies of modern markets and brokers.
As I elaborate in my book, “Your journey of leadership begins when you're in the position to evaluate your own knowledge and your lack of knowledge. A great leader is one who's willing to take risks and understands the implications and knows the limits. And a true great leader is someone who onboards other perspectives, initiates and takes the responsibility for the direction of travel.”
Successful brokers retain talent throughout key departments that will typically have proactive leaders working as a team.
