NicsaTalk - President and CEO of State Street Global Advisors, Yie-Hsin Hung

Yie-Hsin Hung shares some of the defining moments of her career so far, and some of the lessons learned along her journey to be SSGA’s President & CEO. Recorded at Nicsa’s Strategic Leadership Forum 2024, where Yie-Hsin answered audience questions alongside Edward Jones’ Penny Pennington in our annual Face the Membership panel.

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Transcript

JEFF
Hello and welcome to Nicsa Talk, the podcast where people from the asset and wealth management community share their stories, expertise and lessons they learned along the way. Nicsa is the not for profit trade association connecting all facets of the asset and wealth management industry. I'm Nicsa's Jeff Lamoreaux and today I'm so excited to introduce and sit down here live at our Strategic Leadership Forum with Yie-Hsin Hung.

She's the president and chief executive officer of State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of State Street Corporation. Thank so much for joining us. 

YIE-HSIN
I'm delighted to be here. Thanks for having me. 

JEFF
Well, I'm going to jump right into our first question. We start every podcast with our ten second challenge. So in 10s or less describe what you love about this industry.

YIE-HSIN
What I love about this industry is the opportunity to help millions and millions of people around the world achieve their financial aspirations for themselves and for their families. 

JEFF
Great. You nailed it. So how did you wind up in the industry? Are there ways that your background differs from what you think might be a traditional career path? 

YIE-HSIN
I would say my background is maybe a little more traditional.
I did study engineering as an undergraduate, and then very quickly realized that I wanted to focus in on the business and strategy. So after going business school, I went into investment banking. So I've been in financial services my whole career. And it was only until maybe a dozen years out I was focused on the real estate sector and it became a tougher environment.

People were focused more on eyeballs and less on bricks and mortar. And that was the first step where I sort of stepped off that track. Ended up in a role that was a combination of business and technology. And then from there, I found my way to the asset management business, which I just found that I loved. 

JEFF
That's great. So can you tell us about then, a defining moment that helped shape your career or launch your leadership skills?

YIE-HSIN
I would say that moment that I just talked about was the very first step, and it was a situation where I just had put myself in a different environment where for the first six months, I really didn't understand what anybody was talking about. There were acronyms and the like, and then one day I woke up and it started to come together.

And what I learned is that I love really thinking long term about strategy, about competitive positioning. How do you mobilize a team of people to go accomplish big things. And from there, I had maybe a different role, different responsibility, a different company every 2 to 3 years. Sometimes I was promoted, sometimes I raised my hand. Other times I was forced to take with each one of those.

I learned a tremendous amount. not necessarily being the expert in the room. Again, bringing a team of people to figure out how what direction we move in and how do we actually deliver results. And just being in a variety of different situations, being now much better at connecting the dots, seeing the bigger picture. And so I would say that whole journey of getting comfortable with being in uncomfortable situations has been just a hallmark. I would say. 


JEFF
And that was one of the themes that you were speaking about on stage. and talking about that you can go into a, a role or a situation where you don't already know it, but you can learn quickly and adapt and and all that. Do you feel like that's 2 to 3 year sort of cycle? Do you feel like there's something special about that number for you? Do you feel like there's some point where you go now it's time to cycle on to the next thing?


YIE-HSIN
I do in some regards, I think I wasn't necessarily planned, but what it does do is sort of shortening the cycle. You know, think about what it is that you're trying to accomplish over what timeframe, what does success look like and that kind of timetable.

And I think just given the way the world is moving so fast, thinking in smaller increments makes sense. And so it's the way I look at business, and I think probably without realizing it and the impact in terms of my career. 


JEFF
Now we talked about positive defining moment. Was there a time or maybe it was the same time that was a challenging one in your career or for the industry in general, and how do you navigate that?

YIE-HSIN
I mean, I think back to may not be such a big event, but for me, I remember having a very significant project that I was leading coming into a room with very senior people. And I nearly lost that project because there was just so many questions and concerns raised in that room that I walked out of there, and I was co-head of this group at the time, and I just quickly turned to my co headset.

What what happened there? What what could I have done better? And I was so grateful because he was really candid and he gave me feedback and you know in that instance he said you really should have spent time understanding what everybody's perspective was going into that. But the big takeaway for me was appreciating the value of feedback, because if you don't know what it is that you need to work on as a professional, it's going to be hard for you to get better at.

So that has been something that has been so valuable to me and I think really propelled me for this desire to really, honestly, openly embrace feedback and make sure I'm getting that. 


JEFF
Do you have any tips for anybody listening about how to solicit that feedback? 

YIE-HSIN
I think you have to make it very comfortable for someone for sure. You don't want to be defensive the moment they give you some feedback, but you can even open the door and say, I just thought about that meeting.

This is what I think when. Okay? And so really, things didn't go so well and this is what I could have done better. What do you think? And really listening and taking that and asking people, you know sometimes whether it is it's our blind spots. And so having those that can help you point that out when things are happening, you don't see it.

I think those are a couple of ways where you can make it easier to get that really important feedback. 


JEFF
Do you have any specific techniques that you could share or how you find out the restrictions? The other people in that room before you go in, so you know what questions they're going to ask you. 

YIE-HSIN
I think this is all about building relationships.

You know, sometimes I think early on in our career, we're so focused on doing the job at hand and doing exceptionally well, which is obviously table stakes, but building relationships that are much broader than the area that you're focused in, on taking the time to ask the questions, to understand what's important to them before you start selling, what's important to you, right.

Finding that intersection point. And I think, frankly, not only does that help when you walk into the room and you want something to move forward, but I also think it actually makes what you've come up with even better because you're benefiting from a different perspective. And so that's guided me as a leader. I oftentimes bring people from different areas purposely and make sure that we have different perspectives at the table.

And sometimes you have people that speak up a lot, and that's great. And some people don't, but I really deliberately try to draw out all those that are quiet. Say something to say too. And I think by trying to encourage that kind of environment, we'll be in the best spot possible to really understand the risks, the opportunities and what makes sense as the next step.


JEFF
That reminds me of something else that you mentioned on stage, that we at the Next Adversity Project in North America, talk about a lot, that the research shows that having more diverse and more different voices in the room leads to better results.

So now we're changing tack a little bit from your background and looking at instead, where do you see the industry in general in the next 5 to 10 years? What trends do you have? 

YIE-HSIN
Look, I mean, this industry is changing. It's accelerating in terms of the pace of change. But what has been so impressive, I think, about the investment management industry as a time, time again, we have been resourceful and creative and come up with solutions, you know, to ultimately help our end investors.

And so I'm I continue to be very optimistic despite, you know, the pressures that we feel, whether it's, you know, pressure on fees or just the expectations of customers, the need to invest in data and technology and having to choose what it is that you're going to invest in and what you're not. And I think these, you know, cost and thread and I feel like this is part of Safe Streets history, having launched the first US listed ETF 30 years ago, is this notion of democratizing investing?

How do we take these wonderful investment capabilities and make that available to everyday people? And so I think with that sort of focus in mind, and again, I think this is a hallmark of our industry, I believe that we will continue to deliver stronger and stronger value proposition notwithstanding, you know, some of the headwinds and challenges we face.


JEFF
That's great. So you've had a very successful career, and I'm sure you've learned a few lessons along the way. That's how we start our podcast, one of our themes is lessons learned along way. If you could go back and give a piece of advice to your younger self, what would that be? 

YIE-HSIN
I would be saying to myself, don't be so focused on where you're trying to get to enjoy the journey along the way.

So there's a lot you will learn about yourself, what you like, what you don't like, what you're good at, what you're not. And that will shape where the ultimate direction is. And I say, the other thing is just invest in yourself. Make a bet. Make a big bet on yourself. Those are probably the two key things that's so inspiring.

JEFF
Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. This has been wonderful having you here at SLF and speaking to us in our audience here on the podcast. So thank you so much. 

YIE-HSIN
Thank you. Really enjoyed it.