Q & A with Mothobi Seseli

The quest for sustaining and improving our relevance is one that is continuous

What was your first job?

It was as a trainee pensions consultant at one of the country’s pre-eminent employee benefits consulting firms.

What parts of your job keep you awake at night ?

We oversee a committed client asset base of approximately R35 billion on behalf of retirement funds, medical scheme reserves funds and individual investors.

I recognise the extent of trust and responsibility placed on us by our clients in a highly dynamic environment, and this means the quest for sustaining and improving our relevance is one that is continuous.

As the chief executive of Argon Asset Management, I oversee a total staff headcount of 45 employees, whose livelihoods and career successes are hinged on the sustainability and growth of our firm. I find I am consequently always thinking about how to grow the firm.

Who has had the biggest impact on your career and why?

My late dad. He taught me about focus, resilience, and developing my own unique position and being my own man.

This was more in his actions and less about what he said to me.

He also had an interesting take on relationships and was a supreme salesperson.

What is the best professional advice you have ever received?

I have received so much valuable professional advice over the years and each piece a perfect fit for every stage of my career, so I cannot isolate one as the best.

The one piece of advice I still carry with me today is: “It is not about you.”

That piece of advice has helped me countless times to focus on the situation presented to me and what needs to be delivered, and not navelgaze.

Give us your thoughts on transformation, and how it is practised at Argon?

The asset management space is, generally, a closed sector and it is very difficult for people to get in.

I believe it needs to be more of an inclusive space – and inclusive means that you need to be transforming the sector.

You need to introduce people that you would not otherwise have employed – black people, women. It’s about creating a more diverse industry… and when you have diverse input, it makes things more interesting.

At Argon Asset Management, we are very passionate about transforming the asset management industry. We are a proudly blackowned and managed firm that is intent on operating at a global standard and achieving continental significance.

At the beginning of last year, we included two highly qualified and experienced female employees into our executive team and our board is chaired by a well-respected black female, Bridgette Gasa.

We are also running our threeyear Graduate Development Programme. The success of this programme has been very satisfying. We hired eight graduate trainees (six female) who will gain hands-on experience in the investments industry. They come from diverse backgrounds – metallurgy, accounting, economics and information systems. Four of the grads spent four months at the end of last year participating in the Schroders Investment Management Graduate Programme with 26 other trainees from across the world (Schroders is one of the largest global asset managers and London-headquartered, and is our exclusive institutional global partner).

In your opinion, where’s the best place to prepare for leadership? Business school or on the job?

I have a lot of respect for the business school environment, having personally been exposed to the ivy league environment.

The business school environment develops your ability to think critically, but I believe that it is in the work where your temperament and abilities as a leader are tested, developed and refined.

Where to for Argon?

We have since inception focused exclusively on the institutional space, and are now making a push for retail and offshore business.

We have a full complement of the traditional long only propositions across the asset class spectrum and are now ready and desirous of deeper business significance in the market place, perhaps R100bn plus AUM.

What can the industry that Argon is in do to effect positive change South Africa?

Our industry in its entirety looks after approximately R8.6 trillion funds (as at December 31 2015 according to the Association of Savings & Investments South Africa (ASISA).

These funds belong to ordinary South African who are looking to us to safeguard their pension savings in order to retire comfortably.

Our industry has the potential to positively impact the daily lives and economic standings of ordinary South Africans.

In the wider financial services industry there is still room for industry players to impact South Africans through financial literacy and diversity programmes aimed at deepening the rate of inclusion of the previously excluded.

How do you relax?

I play tennis league on the weekends and I spend as much time as possible with my wife and our three children.

What is your message to Africa’s young aspiring business people and entrepreneurs?

The entrepreneurship journey can be challenging but also very personally rewarding if you are patient, put in the time required and put your clients first.

For the first 18 months of our business we had no clients, but we believed in what we had to offer clients and we took our business seriously.