With a meagre 8% representation, women still remain drastically underrepresented among the ranks of mutual fund managers. The total assets managed by women fund managers in India is approximately Rs 3.59 lakh crore, 13% of the total mutual fund assets. Sohini Andani, Fund Manager at SBI Mutual Fund has carved a niche for herself in the Indian asset management space.
Who inspired you to pursue a career in financial markets?
My interest into financial markets goes back to my college days. Our finance professor would bring Annual Reports of companies for us and ask us to analyse them and also talk about business discussions happened during the AGMs of many of the top companies in India that he attended. It was exciting to know about various businesses and what drove their success or failure. Going further, I realized that investing into equities provided opportunity to be co-owner of multiple businesses and create wealth for myself and for investors, which encouraged me to get into this profession and it still continues to excite me post over two decades into it.
The reason why there are not many female fund managers could be two-fold – the mindset of women in India, or the asset management ecosystem; or most probably a mix of both. What are your views and how did you cross this hurdle?
The profession is still relatively young, just 2-3 decades old in India and hence awareness is low. Also, it does not require very huge number of people to scale as compared to any other manufacturing or service profession. Hence, this could be one of the reasons for less attention towards it as a career option. As far as I am concerned, I came in quite early based on my interest and was welcomed into it.
Behavioral finance suggests that women are more risk-averse when it comes to managing money. Have you noticed that trait in yourself as against your male peers?
I would like to believe so, but very difficult to generalize. Everyone makes mistakes including me. It is not about being risk averse, but about right sizing of risk. Superior returns can not be delivered without taking risk, but the quantum and timing of taking risk matters a lot. I believe I still have a lot of room to improve upon it.
In a male-dominated industry, what is the one factor that works for you and one that works against you?
Being focused on what I want to achieve without getting too much distracted by external factors has worked for me most of the time and am sure would work for anybody who follows that. Generally, for women recognition follows delivery, whereas our counterparts often get benefit of doubt in terms being judged on their potential to deliver. I would not consider it as a big disadvantage as it motivates one to do better in what we are doing and hence removes any complacency.
Have you observed that diversity in team helps in better decision making?
Yes, definitely, especially where diverse perspectives are respected and thought through before arriving at decisions.
If you were not into asset management, what would be your next option?
I would certainly be an investor myself into equity markets and would have also like to teach aspiring young students who would want to be part of this profession to the best of my abilities.
What would be your advice to women who aspire to become fund managers?
Choose this profession if it excites you to study/know about different businesses and what leads to their success or failure. The profession requires taking decisions and going right more number of times than going wrong. So, if one likes to take decisions and is ready to own it and be responsible for it, definitely go for it. The role comes with a significant responsibility to be a guardian of hard-earned money of the investors.
