With the recent release of BCG’s Global Wealth 2013 to devour and the RBC Capgemini World Wealth Report due to follow soon, Seb Dovey takes time out of the wealth report season to question the changing role of such publications.

1.
World
wealth
reports:
Worth
their
weight
in
gold
or
wearing
thin
amidst
a
waterfall
of
wisdom
With
the
recent
release
of
BCG’s
Global
Wealth
2013
to
devour
and
the
RBC
Capgemini
World
Wealth
Report
due
to
follow
soon,
Seb
Dovey
takes
time
out
of
the
wealth
report
season
to
question
the
changing
role
of
such
publications.
“What
if
a
person’s
native
or
learned
abilities
to
process
information
sensibly
could
be
warped
by
feeding
junk
into
the
mental
machine?”
-­‐
Clay
Johnson,
The
Information
Diet:
A
Case
for
Conscious
Consumption

2. Ronald
Reagan
once
called
information
the
“oxygen
of
the
modern
age”
because
it
“seeps
through
the
walls
topped
by
barbed
wire,
it
wafts
across
the
electrified
borders.”
Fast
forward
to
today
and
the
walls
have
come
down
–
both
literally
and
metaphorically
–
and
information
flows
faster
than
ever
before.
If
you
stack
a
pile
of
CD-­‐ROMs
on
top
of
one
another
until
you
reach
the
current
global
storage
capacity
for
digital
information
it
would
stretch
about
80,000km
beyond
the
moon.
The
democratization
of
knowledge
can
save
lives
On
the
one
hand,
more
information
is
fantastic.
Enabled
by
online
technology,
the
democratization
of
information
has
boosted,
and
will
continue
to
help,
the
development
of
emerging
economies
and
the
spread
of
genuinely
life-­‐enhancing
messages
about
health
or
human
well-­‐being.
But
the
danger
lies
in
the
fact
that
information
alone
hardly
ever
equals
knowledge.
But
lives
can
be
wasted…
wading
through
worthless
information
According
to
IDC,
75%
of
digital
information
is
generated
by
individuals
so
how
do
we
know
whether
those
individuals
are
qualified
in
any
way
to
filter
or
collate
the
information
they
generate
and
share?
Clay
Johnson,
who’s
words
begin
this
piece,
wrote
a
whole
book
urging
us
to
consume
information
more
consciously
or,
if
you
will,
to
put
ourselves
on
an
information
diet:
“garbage
in,
garbage
out.
We
know
we’re
the
products
of
the
food
we
eat.
Why
wouldn’t
we
also
be
products
of
the
information
we
consume?”
What
do
wealthy
investors
want?
To
illustrate
the
glut
of
information
that
threatens
to
overwhelm
us,
I
ran
a
quick
Google
search
on
ultra
high
net
worth
investors,
tapping
in
“what
do
UHNW
investors
want”:

3.
I
got
plenty
back
for
my
time.
According
to
the
RBC
Capgemini
2012
World
Wealth
Report
there
are
c.100,000
ultra-­‐HNWI
globally
,
representing
a
tiny
fraction
of
the
estimated
7
billion
people
in
the
world.
Yet
despite
the
small
size
of
the
UHNW
segment,
plenty
of
people
are
willing
in
to
step
in
and
explain
what
these
UHNW
investors
want.
210,000
results
pop
up
in
Google
(one
suggestion
per
UHNWI
and
some
left
over)
but
how
many
offer
valuable
knowledge
as
opposed
to
questionable
information?
Google
itself
acts
as
a
partial
filter,
ranking
results
using
its
own
algorithms,
but
that’s
still
a
lot
of
information
to
wade
through.
Take
it
a
step
further
and
tap
in
“what
do
HNW
investors
want?”
and
some
1,530,000
results
emerge.
Given
that
the
same
2012
World
Wealth
Report
suggests
that
there
are
c.11m
HNWI
throughout
the
world
that’s
a
better
ratio,
of
results
to
individuals
but
still
rather
a
lot
of
competing
opinions.
Data
alone
doesn’t
equal
information
Knowledge
begins
with
data
and
historically
data
has
been
the
main
prize
on
offer
from
world
wealth
reports.
Roll
the
clock
back
even
just
a
few
years
and
the
access
to
data
about
global
wealth,
about
UHNWI,
about
asset
managers,
about
any
and
every
aspect
of
wealth
management
was
in
much
shorter
supply
than
it
is
today.
Back
then
there
was
a
genuine
need
for
solid
data.
For
facts.

4. Now,
we
often
have
more
data
than
we
know
what
to
do
with.
So,
how
does
data
become
information?
Information
is
data
made
useful
That’s
a
line
that
jumped
out
at
me
recently
when
I
read
Attenzi:
A
Social
Business
Story,
a
fictional
story,
written
by
Philip
Sheldrake,
about
a
CEO,
Eli
Appel,
who
takes
his
firm,
Attenzi,
on
a
journey
to
becoming
a
social
business.
To
borrow
further
from
Eli
Appel:
“We
mere
humans
do
not
readily
digest
or
understand
data.
Rather,
we
deal
in
information;
that
is
data
made
useful,
made
relevant.
A
collection
of
data
is
not
information
–
for
that
it
also
requires
context
and
understanding.
How
do
you
determine
the
value
of
the
information
and
knowledge
prior
to
the
translation
of
data
into
information
and
knowledge?
Perhaps
the
best
we
can
achieve
is
simply
to
have
a
good
guess
at
whether
the
potential
information
and
knowledge
we
might
unearth
will
make
anyone
act
on
it.
Or
perhaps,
more
precisely,
will
anyone
change
what
they
would
have
done
otherwise?”
It’s
an
interesting
question
to
level
at
world
wealth
reports.
We
know
that
there
is
a
large
industry
of
wealth
management
professionals
eager
to
learn
what
investors
want.
We
know
that
there
is
a
large
contingent
of
UHNWI
who
don’t
feel
well
served
by
current
wealth
management
models?
But
do
world
wealth
reports
do
anything
to
change
that?
Does
the
data
–or
information
–
they
contain
make
anyone
do
anything
differently
or
are
they
actually
in
danger
of
becoming
PR
machines
that
give
the
world
and
his
wife
an
excuse
to
quote
a
press
release
or
share
some
topical
stats?
Information
is
applied
using
insight
I
think
the
missing
link
is
insight.
Knowledge
comes
from
turning
information
into
actionable
insights
that
can
help
wealth
managers
take
concrete
steps
towards
growing
their
business,
attracting
and
retaining
asset
or
engaging
with
wealthy
clients.
R.O.I
(return
on
information)

5. Scaling
back
the
information
you
consume
and
focusing
in
on
world
wealth
reports
that
offer
insight
is
certainly
one
way
to
a.
reduce
information
overload
and
b.
create
a
better
return
from
the
information
you
turn
your
mind
to,
but
there’s
still
the
question
of
who
to
trust?
There’s
probably
no
easy
answer
to
that
one,
but
I
will
offer
up
some
standards
I
think
all
wealth
repots
should
meet:
3
rules
for
insight
led
wealth
management
intelligence
1. Wealth
reports
must
use
insight
to
turn
data
to
actionable
insight
2. That
insight
should
be
gathered
by
experts
using
a
mixture
of
quantitative
and
qualitative
research
methodology
3. Those
experts
should
have
access
to
time-­‐series
data
and
a
depth
of
experience
that
allows
them
to
separate
the
wealth
trends
with
longevity
from
red-­‐herrings
that
emerge
from
spurious
data
spikes.
If
world
wealth
reports
followed
those
rules,
I
think
more
people
would
genuinely
change
what
they
would
have
done
otherwise.
If
more
wealth
managers
applied
similar
rules
to
the
information
they
share
with
clients
and
challenged
themselves
in
the
same
way
to
provide
information
that
can
genuine
help
and
influence
their
clients
then
they’d
probably
see
more
investors
changing
what
they
would
have
done
otherwise
too,
and
that
change
might
just
involve
a
boost
in
client
retention
or
assets
under
management.
About
the
author:
Sebastian
Dovey
is
Managing
Partner
at
Scorpio
Partnership
the
leading
consumer
insight
and
strategy
consultancy
to
the
global
wealth
industry.
15
years
ago,
Seb
helped
set
up
Scorpio
Partnership
to
realise
his
vision
of
a
global
strategy
think
tank
focusing
on
private
investor
benefits
in
wealth
management,
proving
that
there
is
a
different
way
to
be
a
knowledge-­‐based
management
consultancy.
Over
the
past
15
years
the
firm
has
worked
with
over
125
institutional
and
individual
clients,
won
numerous
awards
including
a
recent
award
for
outstanding
thought
leadership
in
Asian
wealth
management
and
now
boasts
the
largest
database
of
UHNWI.
Seb
has
a
background
in
publishing,
including
a
three-­‐year
stint
at
managing
editor
of
the
Institutional
Investor
publication
and
regularly
presents
at
global
wealth
management
events.