Maydew’s team has long run a similar model.
“The team know what their objective is. But they are the specialist on the ground, and they are best positioned to make decisions in real time within their region,” he says.
The centrepiece for his team is a weekly global call with the entire team – in Sydney, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and Chicago.
This has been going on long before the crisis and will remain long after it ends.
“Everything in the portfolio has to come through me as a central decision point, but we are able to make real-time decisions very quickly on the ground across the world and then feed them immediately into client outcomes,” he says.
Maydew stresses the importance of maintaining the balance between work and life, especially when there’s no longer any physical separation between the two.
He reminds his team to remain healthy, eat well, exercise and take breaks regularly. “Above all, spend some time with family and loved ones,” he says.
“Try to create some boundaries in the day and in the week, so when the opportunity presents itself to switch off, you can spend some quality time with the family and try to get some downtime.”
The presence of family itself – and especially children who are being forced into home schooling across the world – is making it even trickier for professionals to work from home.
Maydew recognises that it works differently for everyone, but an environment where physical areas are marked for work can help.
Our U.S. team did a virtual happy a couple of Fridays ago... to celebrate the end of the week. Just to catch up. I thought that was awesome."
“Perhaps you see your kids in the morning, and then say goodbye and go into whatever room you need to do your day job, but coming out for regular breaks to see them,” he says.
This maintenance of normality even extends to Friday afternoon drinks.
“Our US team did a virtual happy hour a couple of Fridays ago,” he says.
“One of the most manic weeks ever in markets but they still found the time to think it through, put it in the diary and then honour that by getting together virtually and having a drink to celebrate the end of the week. Just to catch up. I thought that was awesome.”
Maydew acknowledges he and his team are in a somewhat privileged position with the capability to work remotely without affecting the work they do.
“That’s the beauty of what we do. You don’t need to be in an office. We have access to technology, market pricing… it’s very manageable.”
Given Maydew and his team were early to see the coming crisis, they are also hoping to be early to see the signs that signal the world and markets return to normality.
“Hopefully, the containment of people’s movements continues to slow the growth of the virus,” he says.
“We then need to see the transmissibility drop for this to get under control in the near term, but finding a vaccine is the solution”.
“When we start seeing lower transmissibility translate into the numbers, then that’s when we’re going to have greater confidence, but we are very aware of risks of further waves of infection and the economic consequences, so remain cautious.”