He adds: "The key has to be personalisation; the client has to feel they are getting a bespoke service from their financial planner. We think we are unique in terms of the scale and breadth of our offering, from the Bestinvest platform which is D2C right through to helping people sell a business if they want to, but all of that has to come with personalisation and I think that in future that is now we will be differentiated.
"In this industry, scale is very important, but lots of people are buying businesses, and I think in future, having a differentiated offering will be what matters. I think differentiation grows market share. It is also the case that in the current market conditions, it is more difficult to be a small firm.”
The one area he says the business has “punched under its weight” in is being an outsourced investment management solution for advisers.
He says a spate of recent business development hires have been brought on board specifically to grow the company in this area of the market and more hires are imminent.
Not new to the industry
Woodhouse’s arrival at Tilney as chief executive in 2017 came after a career at UK motoring and financial services group the RAC. Previously, he held roles at retailers Debenhams and Homebase.
He says the experience of running a retailer is different to running a regulated business. The RAC is essentially both, as it is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority just as Tilney is, but also is a retail product.
Woodhouse says the main difference is that at Homebase the focus was on selling products, whereas a regulated business is focused on providing advice.
He adds that he began his career as a chartered accountant and worked in the City and on Wall Street, so the industry is not new to him.
The common thread that links the various roles of Woodhouse’s recent career is working for private equity owners.
Such businesses typically have a fixed idea of how they will exit the companies they acquire, and when. Beyond saying the exit will likely be via a stock market float or a sale to another private equity business, Woodhouse says he does not believe it matters much to himself or his colleagues in the senior management team which form of exit is chosen.
He says: “For me, the owners are just like how non-executive directors would be at a publicly listed company. In fact, that is how the private equity owners interact with us at Tilney.
"They have two non-executive director seats on the board. And they, as part of the board, approve the strategy and the budget. Of course it is the case that many private equity firms know exactly how they would like to exit and when, but I think that is much less the case when it is a company as big as Tilney.
