With the great equity bull market of the 1990s now well and truly behind us, the automatic earnings momentum within the asset management industry is as distant a memory as the many believers in the dot-com fantasies. The stark realisation of this hard fact, in combination with the apocalyptic events of September 11 and the new post-Enron intolerance, has resulted in a big reassessment of the prospects for this industry. What are the consequences for asset management firms?

The challenge facing the leadership of asset management firms today is not only to prove that they are not 'swimming naked' while the tide is going out, but also that they grasp the changing force and direction of the current.