Tim Hodgson of Towers Watson has spent more than a decade seeking to fine-tune the engines that power the asset management sector. This year, he reached for a bigger spanner.

It takes the form of a new project by a Towers Watson-backed think tank called the Thinking Ahead Institute, whose institutional members manage $11 trillion. It draws on his experience of leading an in-house group for the investment consultant, which itself advises clients with $2 trillion.