The last few weeks have been a historic time for the UK, with the removal as expected of the tired and discredited Labour Government that had been in power for 13 years, but more significantly the coming to power of the first coalition government in the UK since 1945 led by the Conservative leader David Cameron. In respect of the City, there are some large policy differences between the Conservatives and the LibDems but it’s hard to imagine that a Conservative led government will be bad for the City.

Many articles have come out in the press on what makes a coalition government successful, and I am struck by the similarities of that with what makes companies successful . Top of the list is the personal chemistry between the different parties – if that exists (assuming of course a prerequisite of competent people and a viable business model) almost everything else can be made to work. After the recent board changes at Lombard Risk, I truly feel we again have those ingredients – a board and management team that is not only competent but which has enough personal chemistry to deal with inevitable professional disagreements quickly and decisively. It is immensely encouraging that we are able to get to decisions and implementation of those decisions quickly.

A few weeks ago we announced a record order book for the company, and while this also means a record amount of work to be done I would much rather have that problem than the opposite. A large part of the reason is this year’s regulatory wave around Liquidity reporting, but commercially it is encouraging that these waves look like being a regular feature of life over the next few years. The change of UK Government is unlikely to slow that regulatory improvement process down.

John Wisbey

John Wisbey is the CEO of Lombard Risk, which he has led since its launch in 1989 with the introduction of OBERON, one of the industry's original software systems for financial instrument valuation and risk management. John has guided the company's organic growth through the creation and development of several successful products.