Advisors who had struggled to pay their bills after going fee-only in the early 1990s, back when it seemed like a risky business decision, began to reap the benefits. Not surprisingly, more than a few were feeling quite satisfied with their accomplishments.
Not Thomasson. "I'm a great one for manufacturing a crisis," he admits.
Why? Thomasson has always viewed his firm through a highly critical lens that is foreign to most RIA firms. The firm's relentless process of self-criticism and a total rejection of complacency can be traced to him.
Despite its remarkable ascent, Oxford has experienced bumps along the way. Thomasson freely concedes that most of his negative experiences "have come when I thought I was too smart," he explains. "That's happened to me repeatedly. My first response is to get mad at somebody else. It's taken me a while to figure it out."
There's another reason he likes to manufacture crises. "If we don't have a crisis, I'm going to create one because we execute so well under pressure," he observes.
At the turn of the millennium, Oxford advised more than $3 billion in assets. It had 120 employees, strong growth rates and healthy profit margins. So it seemed an unlikely firm to turn to outside consulting.
In 1999, Mark Hurley, then starting Undiscovered Managers in Dallas, grabbed a lot of headlines, as well as widespread derision, with a white paper predicting that the advisory business would start consolidating, spurring the creation of large firms in most major metropolitan markets. Oxford was already there.
After spending some time with the firm, Hurley reached a simple conclusion. "It's the best-run business in the industry. Period," he declares.
Why? Hurley cites a "combination of vision, smarts" and the constant drive for perfection. "Go to any advisor conference and most of these guys are all walking around talking about themselves," he explains, adding that Oxford advisors are quiet, observant and searching for ideas. "They will not waste time with idiots." It's the only firm Hurley has seen that has designed its own cost accounting system to measure everyone's productivity and profitability.
Before Hurley's report appeared, Thomasson had already realized Oxford needed professional management if it was going to be able to scale the business. This meant hiring a chief operating officer, a chief investment officer, a chief compliance officer and a director of human resources.