The National Strategic Investment Dialogue, 2008

The National Strategic Investment Dialogue (NSID) is an annual national series of discussions among fiduciaries and leaders of the investment community to address issues of vital importance to institutional investors. In 2008, the focus of the program was:

The Investor Identity Crisis

The National Strategic Investment Dialogue (NSID), a series of two separate day-long discussions held in Washington D.C. and Chicago, brought together selected groups of respected fiduciaries and leaders of the investment community. The purpose was to examine and debate the challenges and complexities and innovation associated with managing portfolios.

The topic for the spring session was “The Investor Identity Crisis: Putting Your Portfolio on the Couch.” The program participants took a deeper look at how organizational and individual core values and beliefs, as well as analytical and decision-making strengths and weaknesses, impact investment decisions and how organizations can maximize the tools available to them. Influenced by the market crises in October 2008, the fall session focused on “The Investor Identity Crisis II: Redefining Who We Are and Where We Are Headed In the Midst of a ‘Once in a Century’ Market Meltdown.” Given the market shocks and their potentially transformational consequences, the themes of the meeting were recast to shed light on the challenges faced by institutional investors in the current, volatile, low-visibility environment. The core ideas concerning strategy, tactics and organizational values that had been the group's historical focus, became even more important in the current situation... and they, along with those core ideas born out during this discussion, provided a useful antidote to the high noise-to-insight ratio of most real time commentaries in the press.

Participants were culled from a variety of organizations and represented a broad range of investment professionals, including money managers, plan sponsors, foundation and endowment investors, board members, and third-party service providers.