I was recently asked what my dream job would be if destiny hadn’t steered me towards the wonderful world of financial advice. My response: a test-driver for Porsche.
You see, I’ve loved Porsches for as long as I can remember. I’ve been lucky enough to own a few, but the thought of actually being paid to drive one is very occasionally sufficient to make me question my career choices.
I try to remind myself whenever these moments of weakness occur that test-driving can be a perilous business. There have certainly been several Porsches I wouldn’t have been especially keen to help refine over the years.
Take the fearsome 917, which was unveiled in the late 1960s. It would eventually deliver Porsche’s first win at Le Mans, where it was capable of topping 240mph, but its early iterations were renowned for being spectacularly unstable.
Self-preservation was often the overriding concern of anyone who dared get behind the wheel. One of the first brave souls to do so in a competitive setting, Frank Gardner, later suggested he was lucky to escape with his life after a terrifying outing at the Nürburgring.
The ’Ring – as it’s known to car bores like yours truly – is key to the point I want to make here, because Porsche’s history at motorsport’s most unforgiving circuit tells us a lot about innovation. The welcome corollaries of innovation in the automative arena include speed, efficiency and peace of mind – and it’s the same story in the financial advice industry.
From chaos to confidence
Fourteen years after Gardner somehow made it to the finishing line, rising F1 star Stefan Bellof tackled the Nürburgring in a Porsche 956. In large part because of its “ground effect” aerodynamics, the 956 was rather less unruly than its formidable predecessor – although it was still a handful.
Bellof duly set a new fastest lap at the venue. Incredibly, it would stay unbeaten for more than three decades. The feat came during a qualifying session. He crashed during the race itself, and two years later he was killed at the wheel of a Porsche 962.
In 2018, 35 years after Bellof’s scintillating performance, Timo Bernhard shaved almost a minute off the record. He was driving a state-of-the-art Porsche 919 LMP1 Hybrid Evo.
Watch the footage on YouTube and you’ll undoubtedly be astonished by how insanely quickly the 919 is travelling. But you might also be struck by how comparatively effortless its progress appears.
This is because, unlike Gardner and Bellof, Bernhard had a superabundance of technology on his side. The 919 benefited not only from a remarkable engine and extraordinary lightness but from an active aero system, an electro-hydraulic sequential gearbox, novel tyre compounds and even a design whose finest details had been repeatedly tweaked through machine learning.
In other words, the 919 wasn’t just hugely potent and rapid – qualities to which, let’s face it, plenty of vehicles are able to stake a lazy claim. Crucially, even when pushed to the limit, it also inspired calm and confidence in its user.
Embracing the cutting edge
More and more advisers are nowadays wearily familiar with what it means to be pushed to the limit. They’re struggling to meet the demands of clients and regulators alike. They’re trapped in a tangle of reviews and red tape. Above all, they’re constantly overservicing.
Like Gardner and Bellof, they’re having to work extraordinarily hard to produce their best – and even to survive. All things considered, they could be forgiven for thinking the risks aren’t matched by the rewards. So how can their experience be made more like that of Bernhard in the 919?
As touched on earlier, it’s the same solution: innovation. Whether we’re hustling a Porsche around the ’Ring or attempting to guide a journey towards a secure financial future, technology can make our lives much easier.
For example, at Truly Independent we’ve developed three service propositions. The first is entirely digital, the second is virtual, and the third is active – which is to say meetings are still conducted in person rather than electronically. This is how we strive to meet the needs of all our clients, irrespective of how wealthy they might be.
Importantly, it’s also how we ensure our advisers aren’t operating under unnecessary strain. Utilising tech doesn’t render them lesser beings. It’s simply a matter of evolution, utility and common sense. Why not embrace the cutting edge if it massively reduces your stress levels, enables you to do your job more effectively and leads to better outcomes for the people who rely on your expertise?
Thanks to tech, the Porsche I own today is a doddle to drive. That suits me just fine, and I increasingly view the provision of financial advice in the same way. It’s becoming ever more apparent that advisers who refuse to recognise the power of innovation are doomed to remain at the back of the grid – or even worse.
Andrew Goodwin is co-founder and CEO of Truly Independent and the author of ‘The Happy Financial Adviser’.
