It was a coup for Old Mutual Investments to recruit Khaya Gobodo as the new head of asset management. And it took a while — 15 months have passed since his predecessor Diane Radley left.One of his roles will be to clarify Old Mutual’s often confusing "boutique" model, which includes mature businesses such as Futuregrowth and Customised Solutions, with about R150bn under management each.Neither of these outfits is likely to be confused with a 10m² scarf shop in Parkhurst.Gobodo is well versed on the subject."I don’t believe that boutique primarily refers to size. The key factors are autonomy, nimbleness and specialisation. One boutique looks at SA equities and nothing else, another at emerging markets. And we don’t keep subdividing for the sake of it. We can’t see a rationale for splitting Futuregrowth into a vanilla bond and a credit business — they don’t make sense in separate silos," he says.One of the main reasons for setting up boutiques was to compete with independent managers...
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