John Marcante
Global CIO
Vanguard Group
July 2020
Leadership during challenging times is a galvanizing experience for executives, and navigating the ups and downs of 2020 requires a flexible and humble approach to leadership and communication, both internal and external.
In the initial weeks of COVID-19 and shelter-in-place orders, organizations had to quickly pivot to a remote work strategy and ensure their workforce was able to keep business operational. Business continuity plans were, and continue to be, stress-tested while many organizations are settling in for the long haul of remote work and stressors to communities and the economy.
John Marcante, Global CIO at Vanguard Group, an investment advisory group managing $6.2 trillion in assets, shared his experience in leading through the tumultuous times of a global pandemic, societal unrest and an economic recession. Vanguard has responded to the challenges of 2020 by standing behind its core values to provide continual support for its employees and clients.
How are you and your teams faring after being remote for this long? With productivity stable or increased, how do you see this affecting the IT operating model when we come out of this pandemic period?
I’ve been incredibly impressed by how our teams at Vanguard have navigated the past few months. With so many changes and disruptions to normal workflows and patterns, we have remarkably seen our productivity levels stabilize and increase with teams finding ways to fuel their innovation and creativity.
We are constantly assessing which changes we should integrate into a new normal moving forward.
In particular, we know that technology powers new business opportunities, so we want to continue the spirit (and reality) of innovation that we’re seeing from our crew in this new working environment.
You stress the importance of being a compassionate leader. Was that the culture before COVID-19?
Vanguard’s culture has always been unique – our crew genuinely care for one another and each other’s success. The pandemic and subsequent global events, such as the protests for racial justice, have only highlighted that fact. Personally, I believe that compassion from leaders during difficult times is highly influential. While we always care about issues crew face outside of the office, the notion of “outside of the office” has changed; the office is home – with kids, pets, loved ones, homeschooling, and the realities of racial injustice weighing heavier than ever for many. Now more than ever, it is critical for leaders to show compassion and empathy for all crew.
Were the initiatives you’ve put in place since going remote difficult to sell to the other business leaders? Are there any you think will become “normal” after the pandemic subsides?
Our move to working remotely, like many companies, was a direct result of the pandemic. Our senior leaders were completely supportive of the decision to have as many crew as possible work from home, both for their safety and the company’s ability to continue serving our clients well. Because we have seen our productivity and innovation at all-time high levels, we are considering how we’ll view remote work or flexible schedules in the future.
We also offered several new benefits to crew in response to both the pandemic and the longer-term work from home scenarios, including caregiver leave, expanded sick leave, and childcare leave for those with children under 13. We’ll continue to assess whether these benefits will remain over the long term, but the one thing that will remain is our new Crew Emergency Relief Fund. The fund was established to provide grants to help crew who are facing significant personal challenges as a result of natural disasters, pandemic-related impacts, or family hardships.
How are you communicating your back-to-office plan to employees in a way that maintains the trust and support you’ve built up over these past few months?
We have seen that frequent and consistent communication has been critical to building and maintaining trust. Our willingness to answer questions and be transparent with changing and imperfect information has gone a long way to building trust amongst crew and leaders. Also, Vanguard created a central online resource for crew, which provides the latest updates and information, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.
Prior to the pandemic, your company’s business growth strategy was driven by how you differentiated your products and services from the competition. How do you see the new environment impacting that strategy, and what role do you see digital technology playing in reshaping that strategy?
Our strategy hasn’t changed – we remain dedicated to serving our clients and giving them the best chance for investment success through leading investment products and best-in-class advice. The past few months have highlighted the need for financial help and guidance, especially during difficult periods. This is why we exist – to be there for our investors and help them weather volatile markets and meet their financial goals. The current environment reinforced the need to continue our digital and virtual client experiences.
What do you foresee being the biggest hurdle to overcome in the second half of the year?
The volatility in the market could be a challenge. We want to help investors plan carefully for their future, making sure they are following their plan and not reacting to the markets.
Ending on a positive note—There are always victories among the chaos. Looking back at the past few months, what adjustment or accomplishment are you most proud of?
I’m pleased that we’ve had many successes despite the challenges we’ve faced over the past few months. Obviously, our biggest adjustment was to move 98% of our workforce from working in physical office buildings to working from home. We accomplished this in less than two weeks, all while keeping our critical functions for clients fully operational and robust, even in the midst of increased usage numbers due to market volatility. This meant renegotiating our vendor contracts and dramatically increasing our VPN capacity. We also created limited-contact, drive-through hardware depots that allowed crew to pick up needed resources including laptops, monitors, and phones. I’m proud of how our leadership aligned on these goals and appreciative of the outstanding work our crew undertook to get us to the finish line on these efforts.
Any other successes or accomplishments you’d like to share with your peers?
Two other things that we’ve done at Vanguard have really impacted me during this time. The first is our focus on our community. We want to take care of not only our crew and our clients, but also our community. Financially, we’ve pledged more than $15 million in aid to pandemic-related causes and racial justice causes. I’m moved by that kind of commitment. Recently, we announced a $350,000 donation to HBCUs who were particularly affected by the pandemic, which was very meaningful to me.
The second thing that I’ve been proud of is our conversations about racial injustice both outside of and within the workplace. We are a company that believes strongly that diversity, inclusion, and belonging are critical to our success. We have been intentional about addressing this issue on the local level with our teams, and on broader levels within the enterprise. It’s been motivating for me to see our crew be vulnerable about their own experiences as minorities, or to see those in the majority be honest about what they do not know and want to learn. These conversations have already been beneficial, and we look forward to continuing this work long-term.
Special thanks to John Marcante and Vanguard Group.
by CIOs, for CIOs
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