netrashetty
Netra Shetty
FMR LLC (FMR LLC), known as Fidelity Investments, is one of the largest mutual fund and financial services groups in the world. It was founded in 1946 and serves North American investors. Fidelity Ventures is its venture capital arm. Fidelity International Limited (FIL), was an international affiliate founded in 1969, serving most countries in the rest of the world. In September 2010, FIL was rebranded as 'Fidelity Investment Managers'.[1]
Fidelity Investments manages a large family of mutual funds, provides fund distribution and investment advice services, as well as providing discount brokerage services, retirement services, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, life insurance and a number of other services.
Beginning with Ned Johnson's leadership, the company began to more aggressively promote its services, keeping a high profile in the industry and before the general public through its big-budget marketing efforts. By the early 1990s the company's advertising budget was $28 million per year, making it the biggest advertiser in the mutual fund industry. Meanwhile, Fidelity was also reaching the public through a nationwide network of branch offices, launched in 1980.
Like his father, Ned Johnson was also fascinated by Japanese culture, inspiring him to adopt Japanese-style management. The company was vertically integrated in order to make it more self-sufficient. One of the functions brought inhouse was the account processing that banks usually handled for mutual funds. Fidelity was then able to capitalize on these operations by selling its services to other investment firms. Johnson was also prompted to create a closer relationship with employees and management. Ideas for improving business were solicited, while promoting an atmosphere of team loyalty.
In the late 1960s Fidelity began--before many other banking and investment firms&mdashø invest a large share of its budget in technology, with an eye toward becoming technologically self-reliant. As a result Fidelity was able to stay on top of the data processing and telecommunications revolution that was beginning to transform the financial industry. This strategy continued, and as the company entered the 1990s Fidelity was spending more than $150 million a year in the technology realm. The company was at the forefront of the group of financial firms making the transition from traditional roles to one of technology-based customer service, offering a kind of one-stop financial services shop.
An example of these advances was the interactive, automated telephone system that Fidelity was among the first to install in 1983. The following year the firm began offering computerized trading through Fidelity Investors Express. This service allowed customers to perform their own stock trades through home personal computers--what had become known as desktop investing. Fidelity also had custom-designed software to help representatives tap more information, including margin calculations and options analysis, while responding swiftly to customer requests. By the early 1990s Fidelity had upgraded its phone answering system to the point where it could handle 672 calls simultaneously on its automated toll-free lines, while a master console in Boston routed calls to the first available operator around the country. Fidelity also had its own electronic stock trading system, called the Investor Liquidity Network, that matched buy and sell orders from its brokerage and fund operators with those of outside institutional investors.
ohnson followed the path of her father, whose father Edward C. Johnson II, had founded Fidelity in 1946. Edward C. Johnson III took over when his father retired in 1977. Abby Johnson shared her father's philosophy of being discreet and shunning publicity. She had visited her father numerous times while growing up and was drawn to the buzz and energy of the trading room. After graduating from Hobart in 1984, Johnson spent two years at Booz Allen Hamilton because she believed that she should not spend her entire career at Fidelity. However, after graduating from Harvard Business School, Johnson began her apprenticeship at Fidelity.
Johnson's first job at Fidelity was an analyst covering the industrial equipment industry. She looked back fondly on this first job, having kept models of trucks and bulldozers. She then managed six mutual funds, among them the Select Industrial Equipment Fund, the Dividend Growth Fund, the OTC Portfolio, and the Fidelity Trend Fund. She was successful in achieving good results in the management of these funds.
Johnson's success as a fund manager led in 1997 to her appointment as associate director and senior vice president of the equity division of Fidelity. She was one of three senior vice presidents who reported to Robert Pozen, the head of Fidelity's mutual fund division. During her tenure in this role, Johnson served as a mentor to new fund managers and learned from her father's closest advisors how to be a better manager of people. Two of these advisors were Peter Lynch, the vice chairman of Fidelity, and James Curvey, the retired vice chairman. Other executives who influenced Johnson were Robert Reynolds, the COO of Fidelity; Andrew Grove, the chairman of Intel; and Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric.
HEIR APPARENT
In 2001, after reported personality conflicts with Pozen, Abby Johnson was appointed president of Fidelity. This appointment led many analysts to speculate that Edward Johnson III was grooming her to succeed him, although both Johnson and her father said that he had no plans to retire from Fidelity. Abby Johnson did not expect to be handed the role. In an August 8, 1999, article in the Boston Globe , she was quoted as saying, "I work here because I want to, not because people think I have to…. I definitely want to continue to have a role at Fidelity." In her first year as president, Johnson tried to push Fidelity in a new direction. Under Pozen's leadership Fidelity had created benchmarks, and Pozen had instilled discipline among its fund managers. Johnson, who continued to use the benchmark system, urged managers to take more risks and to use the art of stock picking to revitalize Fidelity's mutual funds. By adding a broader range of investment options, Johnson hoped to regain customers lost to higher-performing mutual funds. After September 11, 2001, Fidelity allowed itscustomers access to its accounts in a good-faith attempt to show the company was customer oriented. When asked about her investment philosophy for an article for the New York Times , Johnson replied, "It's helpful to use kung fu" (May 22, 2001). Johnson, who rarely made public statements, in June 2004 castigated Fidelity's competition for allowing trading abuses. Fidelity profited from the missteps of its competitors. Under Johnson's leadership from 2001 to 2004 Fidelity added $100 billion to its mutual fund. Lawrence Lieberman, a man aging director at Orion Group, told the Contra Costa Times , "She's silenced the critics who questioned whether she was the right person for the job" (June 4, 2004).
From her corner office 35 floors above
Boston's financial district, Abigail Pierrepont Johnson,
president of Fidelity Investments' mutual fund division, rips
into competitors for allowing the trading abuses that have
metastasized into the biggest scandal in the industry's history.
``The best I can figure out is that the people who did the
stupid things were thinking about the one-year financial
performance of their companies,'' says Johnson, 42. ``You get a
few more assets in the short term, but it dilutes returns over
the long term.''
Fidelity has so far avoided the taint of corruption, and
that's just one piece of good news for the world's largest mutual
fund company. Profit rose 12.3 percent last year to $907.5
million. In February, managed assets topped $1 trillion as the
company has reeled in new billions -- some at the expense of
competitors involved in the trading scandal.
From last September -- when New York Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer trumpeted investigations into Bank of America Corp.'s
Nations Funds unit, Bank One Corp., Janus Capital Group Inc. and
Strong Capital Management Inc. -- through April, Fidelity gained
$34 billion in fund assets excluding money markets, 15.4 percent
of the U.S. total, according to Boston-based Financial Research
Corp.
In 2002, Fidelity gathered 7.6 percent of net new fund
assets.
Fidelity Investments manages a large family of mutual funds, provides fund distribution and investment advice services, as well as providing discount brokerage services, retirement services, wealth management, securities execution and clearance, life insurance and a number of other services.
Beginning with Ned Johnson's leadership, the company began to more aggressively promote its services, keeping a high profile in the industry and before the general public through its big-budget marketing efforts. By the early 1990s the company's advertising budget was $28 million per year, making it the biggest advertiser in the mutual fund industry. Meanwhile, Fidelity was also reaching the public through a nationwide network of branch offices, launched in 1980.
Like his father, Ned Johnson was also fascinated by Japanese culture, inspiring him to adopt Japanese-style management. The company was vertically integrated in order to make it more self-sufficient. One of the functions brought inhouse was the account processing that banks usually handled for mutual funds. Fidelity was then able to capitalize on these operations by selling its services to other investment firms. Johnson was also prompted to create a closer relationship with employees and management. Ideas for improving business were solicited, while promoting an atmosphere of team loyalty.
In the late 1960s Fidelity began--before many other banking and investment firms&mdashø invest a large share of its budget in technology, with an eye toward becoming technologically self-reliant. As a result Fidelity was able to stay on top of the data processing and telecommunications revolution that was beginning to transform the financial industry. This strategy continued, and as the company entered the 1990s Fidelity was spending more than $150 million a year in the technology realm. The company was at the forefront of the group of financial firms making the transition from traditional roles to one of technology-based customer service, offering a kind of one-stop financial services shop.
An example of these advances was the interactive, automated telephone system that Fidelity was among the first to install in 1983. The following year the firm began offering computerized trading through Fidelity Investors Express. This service allowed customers to perform their own stock trades through home personal computers--what had become known as desktop investing. Fidelity also had custom-designed software to help representatives tap more information, including margin calculations and options analysis, while responding swiftly to customer requests. By the early 1990s Fidelity had upgraded its phone answering system to the point where it could handle 672 calls simultaneously on its automated toll-free lines, while a master console in Boston routed calls to the first available operator around the country. Fidelity also had its own electronic stock trading system, called the Investor Liquidity Network, that matched buy and sell orders from its brokerage and fund operators with those of outside institutional investors.
ohnson followed the path of her father, whose father Edward C. Johnson II, had founded Fidelity in 1946. Edward C. Johnson III took over when his father retired in 1977. Abby Johnson shared her father's philosophy of being discreet and shunning publicity. She had visited her father numerous times while growing up and was drawn to the buzz and energy of the trading room. After graduating from Hobart in 1984, Johnson spent two years at Booz Allen Hamilton because she believed that she should not spend her entire career at Fidelity. However, after graduating from Harvard Business School, Johnson began her apprenticeship at Fidelity.
Johnson's first job at Fidelity was an analyst covering the industrial equipment industry. She looked back fondly on this first job, having kept models of trucks and bulldozers. She then managed six mutual funds, among them the Select Industrial Equipment Fund, the Dividend Growth Fund, the OTC Portfolio, and the Fidelity Trend Fund. She was successful in achieving good results in the management of these funds.
Johnson's success as a fund manager led in 1997 to her appointment as associate director and senior vice president of the equity division of Fidelity. She was one of three senior vice presidents who reported to Robert Pozen, the head of Fidelity's mutual fund division. During her tenure in this role, Johnson served as a mentor to new fund managers and learned from her father's closest advisors how to be a better manager of people. Two of these advisors were Peter Lynch, the vice chairman of Fidelity, and James Curvey, the retired vice chairman. Other executives who influenced Johnson were Robert Reynolds, the COO of Fidelity; Andrew Grove, the chairman of Intel; and Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric.
HEIR APPARENT
In 2001, after reported personality conflicts with Pozen, Abby Johnson was appointed president of Fidelity. This appointment led many analysts to speculate that Edward Johnson III was grooming her to succeed him, although both Johnson and her father said that he had no plans to retire from Fidelity. Abby Johnson did not expect to be handed the role. In an August 8, 1999, article in the Boston Globe , she was quoted as saying, "I work here because I want to, not because people think I have to…. I definitely want to continue to have a role at Fidelity." In her first year as president, Johnson tried to push Fidelity in a new direction. Under Pozen's leadership Fidelity had created benchmarks, and Pozen had instilled discipline among its fund managers. Johnson, who continued to use the benchmark system, urged managers to take more risks and to use the art of stock picking to revitalize Fidelity's mutual funds. By adding a broader range of investment options, Johnson hoped to regain customers lost to higher-performing mutual funds. After September 11, 2001, Fidelity allowed itscustomers access to its accounts in a good-faith attempt to show the company was customer oriented. When asked about her investment philosophy for an article for the New York Times , Johnson replied, "It's helpful to use kung fu" (May 22, 2001). Johnson, who rarely made public statements, in June 2004 castigated Fidelity's competition for allowing trading abuses. Fidelity profited from the missteps of its competitors. Under Johnson's leadership from 2001 to 2004 Fidelity added $100 billion to its mutual fund. Lawrence Lieberman, a man aging director at Orion Group, told the Contra Costa Times , "She's silenced the critics who questioned whether she was the right person for the job" (June 4, 2004).
From her corner office 35 floors above
Boston's financial district, Abigail Pierrepont Johnson,
president of Fidelity Investments' mutual fund division, rips
into competitors for allowing the trading abuses that have
metastasized into the biggest scandal in the industry's history.
``The best I can figure out is that the people who did the
stupid things were thinking about the one-year financial
performance of their companies,'' says Johnson, 42. ``You get a
few more assets in the short term, but it dilutes returns over
the long term.''
Fidelity has so far avoided the taint of corruption, and
that's just one piece of good news for the world's largest mutual
fund company. Profit rose 12.3 percent last year to $907.5
million. In February, managed assets topped $1 trillion as the
company has reeled in new billions -- some at the expense of
competitors involved in the trading scandal.
From last September -- when New York Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer trumpeted investigations into Bank of America Corp.'s
Nations Funds unit, Bank One Corp., Janus Capital Group Inc. and
Strong Capital Management Inc. -- through April, Fidelity gained
$34 billion in fund assets excluding money markets, 15.4 percent
of the U.S. total, according to Boston-based Financial Research
Corp.
In 2002, Fidelity gathered 7.6 percent of net new fund
assets.