Cultivating Skills in Financial Investment

December 13, 2022

The financial industry has been a flagbearer for women’s leadership and entrepreneurship with more women entering the financial workforce since a flagship shift occurred in the 1990s.  Leading this momentum are several women role models at senior leadership positions who have broken the glass ceiling.

To encourage aspiring and practicing investors to pursue and excel in the wealth management profession, Columbia Global Centers | Mumbai organized a seminar entitled From Dalal Street to Wall Street: A Guide to Cultivating Financial Prowess on December 13, 2022, for students, professionals and aligned practitioners working in the field of finance.  The seminar, led by Rupal J. Bhansali, Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager for International and Global Equities at Ariel Investments, and Advisory Board Member of the Ira M. Millstein Center at Columbia Law School, provided critical insights and recommendations on financial investments.  Recognized by Forbes and Barron’s as a leading figure in value investing, Rupal Bhansali is also the author of the recently published book, Non-Consensus Investing: Being Right When Everyone Else Is Wrong (Columbia University Press 2019), a practitioner’s guide for financial investing.

Drawing from her professional and personal learnings, Ms. Bhansali shared her journey from Dalal Street to Wall Street, overcoming odds and succeeding in the male-dominated world of finance.  Backed by  her wide experience of investing in fifty markets around the globe, she discussed the principles of investing to achieve higher returns with lower risks.

Offering a framework for better returns, the seminar introduced the concept of non-consensus investing and explored some of the key principles of this investment discipline.  Explaining her framework through case studies and successes from working at leading firms, Ms. Bhansali argued in favor of informed approaches, which avoid losses by using educated assumptions about stock values in the market.  She also underscored the importance of in-depth market research and country analysis for identifying long-term lucrative investment portfolios and protecting future investments from sudden market crashes.

Ms. Bhansali urged prospective investors to work with experienced professionals and learn from the best on what not to do while investing in markets.In her concluding remarks, she remarked that with an unconventional and upside-down investment approach, which asks the right questions instead of knowing the right answers, an investor is likely to achieve steady growth in returns.  According to her, “While investing, you have to be correct while proving everyone wrong. That's why I call it ‘being right when everyone else is wrong’, because investing is not about picking winners but avoiding losses and losers.”