It takes patience to run one of the world’s largest asset management companies, according to Dominique Carrel-Billiard, chief executive of Axa Investment Managers. He might be expected to know. A former partner of management consultant McKinsey, he is one of the few asset management chiefs to have come from outside the industry, which ought to give him a wider perspective than most.

He has also just completed an overhaul of an important function within his company, sales and marketing. The process took eight months.