Resources
We conduct original research on the causes of short-term business decisions and work to find practical solutions.
Article
3 September 2018 - In the newest episode of the acclaimed podcast series “Capital Allocators“, CEO Sarah Williamson sat down with host Ted Seides to discuss the current state of FCLTGlobal and status quo of global long-term investment. The Capital Allocators podcast is a weekly series of conversations with leaders in money management about the people and process behind capital allocation. Mr. Seides is the founder of Hidden Brook Investments, LLC. Over the the course of the discussion, Sarah shared about the path that brought her to FCLTGlobal, the issues...
In the News
30 August 2018 - Executives have grown used to being nagged about their company’s strategy and governance by all and sundry. Activist hedge funds targeted 524 companies worldwide between January and June, compared with 570 in the whole of 2013 and 805 in 2017, according to Activist Insight, a research firm. Last year two big index-makers, S&P Dow Jones and FTSE Russell, excluded firms with multiple share classes from their flagship indices. On August 22nd Glass Lewis, a firm of “proxy advisers” which advises shareholders on how to vote,...
Strategy | Article
30 August 2018 - What makes an investor quintessentially “long-term”? This question is at the core of FCLTGlobal’s mission and research agenda. Together with our partners at CEM Benchmarking Inc., we surveyed 18 large global asset owners responsible for a combined $1.6 Trillion in assets, about how they act to realize their long-term goals and what outcomes they’re seeing as a result. Our inspiration for probing these particular topics came from the 2015 Long-Term Portfolio Guide, published by the Focusing Capital on the Long Term initiative. Although the survey size is small, it...
Article
27 August 2018 - Each of our research projects is supported by working groups attended by our Members, giving them the opportunity to stay abreast of our current thinking while shaping and contributing to our work.
In the News
23 August 2018 - Last week, President Donald Trump suggested in a tweet that companies could report results every six months instead of quarterly. “That would allow greater flexibility & save money. I have asked the SEC to study!” he tweeted. Quarterly reporting seems like a good thing — transparency ensures informed decision-making by investors. And critics of Trump’s idea have cited concerns over a lack of transparency leading to increased investor risk. Yet in practice, quarterly reporting has evolved into a system of managing primarily for the quarterly numbers, with a...
In the News
17 August 2018 - In a morning tweet, he said this suggestion came from top business leaders who told him that this “would allow greater flexibility & save money.” Indeed. But at a time when public confidence in all institutions, including business, is declining, this is exactly the wrong direction for government to go.
In the News
17 August 2018 - President Trump proposed Friday that public companies should report their financial results only twice a year instead of quarterly.
Investor-Corporate Engagement | Article
1 August 2018 - Each stakeholder along the investment value chain must play a role in shifting to longer-term decision making. Today’s investment community, in large part, has become fixated on hitting immediate goals, losing sight of savers’ broader objectives in the process. An effective way for both companies and investors to correct this imbalance is to avoid short-term dialogue, including practices like offering and evaluating quarterly earnings guidance, and instead center their dialogue on strategies that build support for long-term growth. Building on our earlier work on the investor-corporate dialogue, FCLTGlobal...
In the News
30 July 2018 - Short-termism. IR professionals and corporate management teams are constantly battling the tendency of many investors to buy or sell shares based on short-term quarterly earnings rather than long-term results. Companies thrive when investors are with them for the long-term, yet financial markets seemed geared to reward short-term results, exacerbating and perpetuating the status quo.
Article
23 July 2018 - FCLTGlobal discussed private equity last month in London, where CEO Sarah Williamson joined a panel hosted by Schroders, led by Gavin Ralston, Head of Thought Leadership and Official Institutions.