Podcast Day 2023: A glimpse into the world of thought-provoking conversations
14 OCT, 2023
By Constanza Ramos
In the digital age, the way we consume audio content has undergone a remarkable transformation, thanks to the rise of podcasts. These on-demand audio programs have swiftly captivated the hearts and minds of millions worldwide. The term "podcast" itself is a testament to its origins, coined from a blend of "iPod" and "broadcast" harking back to the days when Apple's iconic iPod was the go-to device for content playback.
As we celebrate Podcast Day on September 30th, we're reminded of the profound impact this medium has had on our lives. In this article, Francisco Rodríguez d'Achille, Partner and Director of LONVIA Capital, Juan Such, Chairman and Co-Founder of Rankia, and Tommy Piemonte, Head of Sustainable Investment Research at Bank für Kirche und Caritas eG, recommend podcasts that talk about how to make smart investment decisions and about engagement and its effectiveness.
Francisco Rodríguez d'Achille Partner and Director of LONVIA Capital
What is the aspiration of each one of us? What goals have we set to reach that state of personal and professional fulfillment? I am sure that, sooner or later in life, we all ask ourselves this question.
Now, what if we do this reflection together with a wealth advisor who guides our financial decisions and helps us make better decisions in general? The answer to this question seems obvious, right? It sounds great.
Convinced then that this is an ideal solution, where do I find that professional to help me make smart investment decisions? And how can I get to know the most personal and human part to understand if we share the same principles and values? Well, this is one of the reasons why at the end of 2020 we launched Una Casa Sobre El Mar. An aspirational concept that has evolved into what it is today: the community of Spanish-speaking financial advisors, where they get visibility of quality, genuine long-term relationships are developed, practical and current training is accessed, and unique and enriching experiences are shared. All this, under a fresh, close, and different environment.
Una Casa Sobre El Mar began as a Podcast and our channels have already accumulated more than 65,000 downloads, 1,500 subscribers, and a retention rate of over 70%.
Some numbers that have prompted us to go further. This 2023 we intend to close the year with more than 100 interviews in our Podcast and continue to consolidate an advisor & investor community that does not stop growing and enriching itself.
What is your Casa Sobre El Mar? What does that longing mean to you? Whether you are an advisor or on the saver & investor side, this community is for you.
Follow us, listen to us, get involved, and use us. We are already helping financial advisors from Europe, Latin America, and the US Offshore to have fresh and different visibility and continue to develop genuine long-term relationships with the entire investment community. Don't be left out, we'd love you to be an active part of Una Casa Sobre El Mar.
Juan Such, Chairman and Co-Founder of Rankia
I really like Lex Fridman's podcast. It has a similar format to my podcast "Una vida invirtiendo" that I have on Rankia.com, i.e. in-depth conversations, usually lasting 2 to 3 hours. Its guests and topics are very broad. He is looking for brilliant minds in science, technology, artificial intelligence, and other fields. Lex is a researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence at the prestigious M.I.T. He has a calm, deep style that I like very much, and has built a huge audience without resorting to histrionics or sensationalism. Episodes I have particularly enjoyed are the interviews he has with Elon Musk, prominent investors and entrepreneurs (Ray Dalio, Michael Saylor, Mark Zuckerberg), and chess players (Carlsen, Kasparov, Nakamura).
Tommy Piemonte Head of Sustainable Investment Research at Bank für Kirche und Caritas eG
A podcast I listened to recently was about effective stewardship, more specifically: How engagement should look like to be effective.
I find the contribution worth listening to for two reasons. Firstly, it makes clear that engagement should follow a clearly defined process and guidelines in order to be effective. Secondly, engagement should have the goal of contributing to positive real-world impact and not just be an end in itself.
In my opinion, these two points, which sound self-evident, are unfortunately not yet taken into account by all asset managers and asset owners who claim to do engagement. All too often they brag about how many hundreds of engagement dialogues have been held over the calendar year or how many voting points have been voted on at general meetings of public limited companies. However, the reader of these engagement reports is regularly left in the dark as to what the concrete engagement goal is and what interim status has been achieved, measured against milestones. Not to mention what escalation of engagement is planned if the investment object does not meet the engagement demands.
As Bank für Kirche und Caritas (BKC), which translates as Bank for the Church and Caritas, we already published our engagement policy and the associated engagement process in 2018, which ensures the necessary transparency about our engagement approach for all stakeholders. Specifically, the process document describes how BKC plans, conducts, and documents engagement activities. This is because, as described in the podcast, we also believe that active engagement requires a clear structure and monitoring in order to be traceable and successful.
In this context, BKC's willingness to engage is based on its understanding of sustainability, which is rooted in its Christian value orientation. This is because we are convinced that through targeted engagement we can both reduce or even prevent negative sustainability impacts of investment objects and promote positive sustainability impacts. In addition, we believe that the risk-return profile of an investment can be positively influenced by engagement.
For these reasons, our engagement activities are possible at every stage of the investment process and are not limited to our ethical-sustainable investment portfolio. This means, for example, that we can also enter into an active dialogue with companies in which we are not currently invested because they violate our exclusion criteria, in order to motivate them to transform towards greater sustainability. Furthermore, we conduct our engagement activities not only with equity companies, but also with bond-issuing companies or other investment objects such as countries or investment funds.
