Nitish Maini - Interview Transcript

[00:00:10] Could you introduce yourself?

[00:00:19] I'm Nitish Maini and I work with WorldQuant. At WorldQuant I'm a chief strategy
officer, but I started in WorldQuant eight years ago as a quantitative researcher. After spending
a few years as a quantitative researcher, I became a portfolio manager and then also
participated in other management related roles at the firm. In my current role as a chief strategy
officer, I spend a lot of time with our management team trying to define the goals and strategy
which the firm would like to pursue on the business and the investment side.

[00:01:01] Are presentation skills important to be successful as a financial engineer?

[00:01:11] I think making presentations is a very important part of [a] financial engineer’s overall
role in an organization and... So, a financial engineer analyzes a lot of data, produces multiple
models, and it is possible that in [the] future, their models would have a lot of capital tied to
them--to them-- in the real markets. So, it is important for them to be able to explain those ideas
in a good way to their peers and to others so that they have confidence to deploy that kind of
capital. So, having done those data analysis, capturing all the information and producing some
good results, is good. But then, you also need to know how to articulate those ideas into [a]
presentation so that everybody else could follow and understand. So, having the story which
you could prepare and which speaks--you know-- what the outcome of those models is trying to
present in front of you is very, very important. And that really helped me when I hear to the
financial engineers: the way they think about the process of reaching to the outcome. First, they
define their objective. Then, how did they implement that objective? And then finally, they looked
at the results and the reiteration of their role models to finally come to a conclusion which is very
clear, very crisp. And we can understand the impact of it. Made it very useful for me when I was
hearing the financial engineers.

[00:02:49] What are common topics that financial engineers are asked to present on?
[00:02:59] Financial engineer[s], I think, would make many different kinds of presentations. So,
depending on the topic of the discussion for that particular presentation, sometimes it could be a
brainstorming session with your peers trying to come up [with] and formulate your idea. The
other times it could be about how to implement that idea and the kind of technologies you want
to use. What is the latest trend and how you should achieve that? Then, it could be the
presentation of results, which could be to your peers and to your managers, and oftentimes it
could be to the senior management. So, I think all of this really makes it important for the
financial engineer to understand: what is the purpose of the presentation that he or she is going
to make and accordingly define the flow and the structure of this presentation so that the
audience can understand. So, it is important to understand the detail and the depth of your
audience and how attached they are to this particular topic. And accordingly, frame your
presentation.

[00:04:05] What would you say makes a good presenter?

[00:04:15] I think one idea which could really be useful--you know-- for the presenters, is even
though you are a presenter, you also have to be a good listener in a presentation. When you're
presenting, there are often--confident--questions coming in from your audience. And a presenter
really needs to pay attention: to understand what is being asked to be able to deliver the right
answer, rather than having a more--you know-- round and round answer, which does not really
express the point and answer the question which the--you know--the audience is asking. So that
is really important. And one element I feel is important, when a presenter is presenting, he's
focused on what he's talking [about], but he also has to understand how the audience is
grasping his content: Are they involved? Are they engaged? Does a presenter need to
reorganize himself during the presentation to be able to convey the message and also be a
good listener to be able to answer the questions from the audience?

[00:05:18] What is the importance of teamwork in presentations and as a financial engineer?

[00:05:28] I clearly remember how the content of my presentation[s] changed as I moved from
[a] researcher to [a] portfolio manager to a manager and now to a strategy officer’s role. So,
there are good stories at each level, but something that has been [in] common--you know--
across all the roles is working with a team. When you are building these presentations and
when you have clear objectives and you know the impact and after the presentations, if it leads
to decisions, which are very impactful, that makes you and the team happy and cherish the work
that you have done together for days to be able to reach this objective. And this does not only
involve building the slide deck, but the whole process of creating the model, the strategy, the
plan which you are then expressing. So that element of teamwork in the presentations makes
me and the team really proud of where we finally reach. And this is one element which I really
like when we are doing the presentations, it helps us come together and judge things together.

[00:06:39] What role does storytelling play in presentations?

[00:06:49] When a financial engineer is creating a model, sometimes it is simple and many of
the times it is complex. So, one has to be able to express that complex idea in a simple form,
which even the non-technical members who are listening, if they are a part of the audience, can
understand. So, a story in your presentation really helps describe that. For example, what does
it mean? What were you trying to achieve? What can we conclude out of all the experiment that
has been done? Are there any further questions which could be raised after looking at the
results that are being presented and what are the next steps that should be taken? So, if there
is this kind of a flow in a form of a story presented to the audience, to the listeners, I think that
makes it really effective. And it makes it very clear for the listener to structure their thoughts as
well in what has been presented and what to take away from this discussion.

[00:07:51] How should financial engineers adjust their presentations based on their audience?
[00:08:02] That's a very important aspect of a presentation. More often than not, it is usually
good to speak in a language which any layman can understand: to be able to express what you
are trying--to find--to talk about. So, the language adjustments would involve elements like:
using more visualization tools. For example, to be able to demonstrate what you're going to talk
about, because a picture can--you know-- speak a thousand words and still make it simple for
the audience and the listeners to understand what has been what is being talked about. Then, in
the language, you also need to make sure that you are clear with the high-level picture of what
you are going to talk and discuss, rather than just talking about a lot of details which can
actually take us away from the higher-level picture. And then, the other element is to be able to
express that picture in a language which is maybe not on this very equation driven, which works
sometimes as well if your audience has a lot of technical, mathematical people who can foster
the --grasp--the idea if it is presented by equations. But, if not, if we have non-technical
members using a more layman language is actually useful.

[00:09:24] What about audiences from different cultures?

[00:09:35] So, this is another big element in your day-to-day communication, not just [in]
presentation[s]. WorldQuant is also a global organization with offices across many countries and
in our day-to-day, we have to work with individuals from all those countries. And there are
different cultures. There are different ways and individuals will react to different situations. So,
you really have to learn and notice with time. You know, when we are making some comments,
some compliments, or discussing or diving deep into different things, that how the individuals or
how the cultures can--like--react to those kinds of things. So it's, again, a very important element
to keep in mind when we are interacting with individuals from different countries: making sure
that we are cognizant that we are talking to different cultures and for the same thing, we can
have different reactions and then continue to notice how it is different and what is the best way
of communicating with each of the different cultures that you have to interact with. And so it's,
again, another learning exercise, which comes when you actually get into that position of talking
to such--global-- global members.

[00:10:53] Any final advice for financial engineers on becoming good presenters?
[00:11:02] Maybe I can share a common tale: that everybody can present. Just like many other
things, it is also an art which, you know, comes with practice. You make presentations, you
learn, you observe. And that is something one has to be very conscious about. You need to
keep learning from the success that you have in every presentation. What--keep gathering
feedback from your audience on what they liked, what they did not like, and keep improving
yourself to take yourself to the point where you can articulate your messages, you can
understand your audience and deliver what you came in to deliver in the presentation. So that's
something I would really like to highlight. It's not a skill which everybody has, but is a skill which
can be nourished--you know--with the time.