Michael Campos, Head of U.S. Asset Managers, Aladdin Business Development
By anchoring operating models on a single investment platform, asset managers can build operational scale and resilience – and meet client demand for more personalization.
Over the years, I’ve worked with some of the largest asset managers in the Americas to reassess their operating models. They share a common ambition: how to scale for the future while delivering better outcomes for investors.
As these firms look toward their 2030 horizons, the message is clear. They want to grow – into new asset classes, geographies, and client segments. And they want to maintain operational control, resilience, and efficiency.
But as they scale and innovate, asset managers must factor in the increasing demand for personalization. Their clients understandably want portfolios, reporting, and service experiences that reflect their specific objectives and preferences. Yet managers know that scaling effectively depends on standardized data, workflows, and controls.
So how do you strike the right balance?
The challenge of personalization
Personalization often shows up as extra rules or bespoke solutions layered on top of existing processes.
If those variations live outside the model, they can become manual workarounds – introducing operational risk, cost, and control gaps. And if variations are introduced directly into data structures or core workflows, they can undermine the resilience and scale that firms are trying to achieve.
The issue is not whether to apply personalization, but how to design it into the operating model effectively. This is emerging as a key differentiator for asset managers.
By anchoring operating models on a single investment platform, asset managers can build operational scale and resilience – and meet client demand for more personalization.
Michael CamposHead of U.S. Asset Managers, Aladdin Business Development
Standardize the core, personalize the edge
From the conversations I’ve had, many firms look to anchor their operating model on a single, integrated investment platform such as Aladdin®. They use it to standardize how portfolios, positions, risk, performance, and cash are represented across asset classes.
This typically includes:
- a common data model for holdings, transactions, benchmarks, and exposures for consistent reporting and oversight
- shared investment and post trade workflows that can be reused
- controls and audit trails embedded into workflows, rather than managed through emails or spreadsheets
Standardizing these elements at the core of the model can create an operational foundation that supports scale, regulatory scrutiny, and resilience – even as products and client demands evolve.
Personalization, on the other hand, can be most effective at the edge of the model – where it can bring benefits without altering the underlying data or workflow logic. Common examples include:
- client-specific reporting structures or performance groupings
- portfolio rules that reflect client constraints, built directly into the system
- tailored service levels for exception handling or reporting schedules
Modular design and governance
What I’ve seen consistently is that personalization applied through operating rules can be governed, repeated, and supported across clients. Personalization delivered through exceptions cannot.
Modular design reinforces this approach. For example, configurable workflows and standardized interfaces allow firms to respond to client asks without re engineering each time. Clear operational guardrails can ensure personalization enhances the model, rather than affecting data integrity and eroding control.
Client segmentation also plays an important role. When embedded into workflows and entitlements, it can replace bespoke processes with predefined service tiers – maintaining a single operating backbone while customizing experiences.
The result: an operating model where exceptions are visible, owned, and auditable. Risk does not disappear, but it becomes easier to identify and manage within a governed system.
Why this matters now
Across the industry, personalization is becoming table stakes. What makes asset managers stand out is not how much they customize, but how they personalize with discipline and repeatability.
At the same time, many asset managers increasingly want to partner with fewer, deeper platforms to help them navigate complexity and achieve outcomes across investment, risk, and operations. This places the emphasis on using an open platform for integrated workflows and unified, consistent data.
For many of the organizations I’ve worked with, evolving their operating model has not simply been about technology adoption but also about strategic intent: gaining greater access, transparency, and control across portfolios while positioning the firm to pursue new opportunities with confidence.
Michael Campos
Head of U.S. Asset Managers, Aladdin Business Development
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