Thinking Deeply: Boardrooms and Ocean Wonders
A few days ago, I did something I hadn't particularly expected to do: I joined TikTok.
My first video was recorded at the London Stock Exchange's Annual Investment Funds Conference. It grew out of a simple observation.
The conference was so busy that some of us were sitting in an overflow room. It was wonderful to see so many people enthusiastic about investment companies and the role our capital markets can play in supporting investment and economic growth.
But it also highlighted a paradox.
The investment industry spends a great deal of time talking about how we attract new investors – while much of that conversation takes place between people who already work in the investment industry.
So I decided to conduct a small experiment.
Thinking Deeply: Boardrooms and Ocean Wonders
Over the next few months, I'm going to explore whether I can use short-form video and other forms of new media to explain some of the subjects I encounter through my professional and voluntary life to a much wider audience. Investment trusts will be a major part of that.
I have spent much of my career working with listed investment companies – as an executive and now as a non-executive director. I think they are fascinating structures, combining investment management, public markets, independent governance and shareholder ownership.
Yet relatively few people outside the investment industry really understand how they work.
I'd like to help change that.
That doesn't mean recommending investments or telling people what they should buy.
Instead, I want to answer much more fundamental questions.
What actually is an investment trust?
Why does it have an independent board?
What does it mean when its shares trade at a discount?
Why might it borrow money?
Who holds the fund manager to account?
And, just as importantly, what are the limitations and risks as well as the potential benefits?
If somebody who has never encountered an investment trust before watches one of my videos and comes away understanding one of those things, I'll regard that as a success.
Better communication from the boardroom
There is another part to the experiment.
I want to explore how directors and other experienced professionals can use new media more effectively.
LinkedIn is an excellent professional network, and I will continue to use it extensively. But inevitably much of what we publish there is consumed by people within our existing professional circles.
TikTok, short-form video, podcasts and whatever comes next provide an opportunity to communicate with entirely different audiences.
That requires us to communicate differently too.
Less jargon. Fewer assumptions about what people already know. Shorter explanations. More conversations. And perhaps a willingness to experiment – and occasionally get things wrong.
I'll document that learning journey here on Deeper Thinking: what works, what doesn't, what audiences actually want to know and what other directors and practitioners might learn from the experiment.
And I hope others will join in.
I'd particularly like to see more investment company directors, managers, advisers and investors explaining what they do and how our industry works to people who aren't already part of it.
And then there's the ocean…
Anyone who knows me will also know that finance and governance are only part of my world.
I'm a diver and have a longstanding involvement with marine and underwater heritage organisations. My voluntary governance activities increasingly bring together diving, marine science, conservation, exploration and nautical archaeology.
Those subjects will be part of the project too.
Partly because they provide another fascinating window into governance, charities, risk and decision-making.
But also because sometimes a shipwreck, an archaeological discovery, a marine conservation project – or simply an extraordinary encounter underwater – is interesting enough to talk about in its own right.
I don't want this to become another narrowly defined finance channel.
I want it to reflect the range of things I encounter and find interesting. Hence: Thinking Deeply: Boardrooms and Ocean Wonders.
An experiment, not a masterplan
I'm deliberately treating the first 90 days as an experiment.
There are no grand targets for followers or views. Instead, I'll be watching what people engage with, what gets shared, what questions people ask and which subjects generate conversations. The content itself will evolve accordingly.
There will be short explainers. Conversations with people from the investment industry. Perspectives from directors and investors. Reports from conferences and events. Governance discussions. Diving. Marine science. Nautical archaeology. And probably some things I haven't thought of yet.
I'll share what I learn here and on LinkedIn as the experiment develops.
Most importantly, I'd like the audience to help shape it. So if there's something about investment trusts you've never understood, something you've always wanted to ask a board director, or something from the underwater world you'd like me to explore, tell me.
And if you find something interesting or useful, please share it with someone else.
You can follow the experiment on TikTok at @alexthinkingdeeply.
Let's see where 90 days of thinking deeply takes us!
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