Ondra - Emerging from a pandemic and the financial advise to keep you going

 

As the world emerges from the shadow of the pandemic and thoughts turn to what the new reality of corporate risk and exposure will be – to say nothing of preparations for ‘the next big one’ -  it might suit us to look back at the last game changing event, namely the global financial crash of 2008, to see what lessons can be learned from how individuals, and firms, adapted last time. Undoubtedly one of the biggest success stories in the post-Lehman world was Ondra Partners, the boutique advisory firm spearheaded by Canadian ingenue Michael Tory. Considering that the ‘financial world’ was now characterised by collapsed firms, uncertain corporate futures and wide mistrust of bankers in general, Michael realised that to succeed, he would need to reframe what a financial firm was. This was done by adopting two leftfield strategies: firstly only offering advice rather than financial ‘products’, and secondly to operate on a retainer basis that would put both firm and client on a far more equitable basis.

 

Financial advise

Such a course of action was genuinely unprecedented in a sector that had become a byword for largesse and impunity. Without transaction fees and the eat-to-kill mentality which prompted firms to act purely in their own self-interest, rather than those of their clients, Ondra pioneered a model of altruistic financial advice which ensured that the market served the client, rather than the other way around. This was a drop in the ocean rather than a sea
change, as the worlds of investment banking, pensions and private equity are still dominated by the sharks. But it does prove that there is an alternative to the ‘hard sell’ approach that arguably contributed to that 2008 disaster – just as it raises the spectre that, if firms like this are still the exception rather than the norm, what price another crash in the not too distant future?

 

But regardless of any potential future, the real one is upon us: a world where economies have been devastated, confidence & trust is running low, and financial security seems an evermore remote prospect. If there was ever a time to think differently, it is now, and a model that faces up to the occasional hard truth while proving it can gain success by swimming against a difficult tide should surely be feted by the City, not dismissed. Sometimes, the no-frills approach to business, pensions and finance is needed to ensure that the emperor still has clothes.