So what makes a Professional in 2008, could it be some of the following?
PEOPLE:
This is, after all, the only reason we are in this business to start with, if we forget that then why even go any further? So what do they want, service, performance and your patience? Yes, get that right and they will be clients for life!
REGULATION:
As professionals we have embraced it and made it part of our lives. The days of the company broker with little more than a Grade 8 education are long gone. The regulators have implemented FAIS and it is part of our lives and we accept it as a barrier of entry to others who will not make the effort and could do our profession harm.
OMBUDSMEN:
A breed of Individual, appointed by regulators and government, they hear the complaints of the public when they feel that regulations and the industry have failed them. It is an ancient legal idea, yet new to our industry; so far so good!
FICA:
Financial Intelligence Centre Act was rather sarcastically thought of as an oxymoron at first! Anyway, the basic idea is to ensure that we are not allowing, as good professionals, money to be laundered through any systems, including secondhand car dealerships! On a service level it has brought another level of organisation to office filing, the sale of filing cabinets to retain the said copies of utility bills and copies of ID books has boomed.
EDUCATION:
We now all strive to pass as many exams as we can as often as we can, honestly!
SERVICE:
You know what this is don’t you, please say yes?
SERVICE:
If you don’t then go and sell cars!
IMAGINATION:
Professionals imagine the future and they set out to create it, a simple tip is L.U.C.K. (labour, under, correct, knowledge).
OPINION:
As Mr Darcy said, in Pride and Prejudice: “My good opinion once lost, is lost forever. Protect what people think of you or on a totally different tack just simply HAVE AN OPINION.
NEGOTIATION:
What we do with our clients when we fi rst meet, but also often when we met them again on their quarterly visits or chat with them on their monthly liaison calls, that is if you understand the two letters above!
ACCOUNTABLE:
What a professional always is to his client and his company. Our lives in 2007 should be totally transparent and there should be no hidden agenda, fee or perk!
LEGAL:
Our regulation has correctly legalised our profession, but we still need some proper policing and many of us believe the FSB deserves more funding to make that possible. If SARS can be so organised and powerful then so can the FSB!
IMPROVED:
It is surely fair that we can in 2008 say that financial services in SA are better than they were 3, 5 or 10 years ago. The participants and regulators are all striving for a better industry.
SERVICE:
Oh come on, not again, third time lucky! Well we all know it is something we are never perfect at, something we all need to work at and something our clients want us to constantly improve upon. We can only keep trying, so lets!
MARKETS:
These are where we work and play, it is where our clients money is invested and where our ability will be judged and our nerve tested. The crucial test, however, is that the clients risk is only ever that which they can afford and we should never exceed that. A true PROFESSIONAL never would! As we move towards another FPI conference we are going to be increasingly thinking about Professionalism and what it means to us all. This may have been a little tongue-in-cheek at times, but at least at the FPI we can talk about the growing level of professionalism within our body with a greater degree of pride, which is in itself exciting!