Anyone coming back from their summer holidays this time two years ago would quickly have learnt, if they did not already know, that the financial markets had entered a state of crisis. However, worse was to come when they returned from the beach a year later, when US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection. Stock markets fell 30% within a month. They have yet to recover their former highs.

As the crisis raged, most asset management companies found themselves in a position where they were forced to cut costs as management fees fell and clients switched their money into safer investments. The best asset management companies had avoided too much leverage, moved quickly to trim their costs, and reassured their clients by sticking to their clearly articulated investment approaches. Some of them seized opportunities. Some of the most successful managers believe they have learnt important lessons from the crisis. William Hutchings interviewed the five managers nominated in this year's Financial News Awards for Excellence in Institutional Asset Management, to find out how they coped with the crisis.