Strategic Innovation: The Definitive Guide to Outlier Strategies

22. Robin Hood: The Merry Adventures of an Asset Management Cooperative

Once upon a time, researcher Sakari Virkki found that the investment algorithm that he had developed after years of hard work would yield an annual rate of return higher (approximately 130 percent) than that of the S&P500.¹ Unlike what most people would have done, he partnered with economist Akseli Virtanen to establish an asset management cooperative. Robin Hood Minor Asset Management Cooperative was thus born in June 2012 in the midst of the European financial crisis. Drawing on the legacy of Robin Hood, the cooperative intended to challenge the conventions and practices of the dominant system. Describing itself as a fund, business, art, bold philosophical and economic ...