Resources
We conduct original research on the causes of short-term business decisions and work to find practical solutions.
Article
15 May 2018 - National (and often international) attention was focused on the unveiling of the White House’s revamped tax plan for much of 2017. Regardless of your political leaning, the impact of the bill on US companies was undeniable; the CBO has predicted a $300B+ benefit to US corporations within a decade of the bill’s passage. This impact raised a major question: what will these firms do with their newfound capital? While this question remains largely unanswered, new data from Q1 earnings season suggests some of this cash is headed...
In the News
14 May 2018 - The NZ$38 billion ($26.9 billion) fund, which established a team last year to make sizable direct investments domestically, said last week it will seek to lead a consortium to design, build and operate a planned NZ$6 billion light rail system for the city of Auckland.
Article
24 April 2018 - Let’s start with the facts: it is critical to be clear about what we know and what we do not. Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria and Harvard Business School Professor George Serafeim started 2018 Focusing Capital on the Long Term Summit by administering a quiz on many facets of long-term investing to dispel misconceptions and provide participants with foundational knowledge to apply for the rest of the day. This questionnaire, created by Serafeim and Nohria, explores the incentives, institutions, and behaviors that give rise to short-termism....
In the News
19 April 2018 - Sarah Williamson is the CEO of FCLTGlobal (formerly Focusing Capital on the Long Term), an organization cofounded in 2016 by BlackRock, CPPIB, Dow Chemical, McKinsey, and Tata Sons to encourage a longer-term focus in business and investment decision making. According to Williamson, a current concern among many institutional investors as well as corporations is that companies don’t get credit for long-term investments in R&D. This is both because the resulting knowledge might walk out the door, as employees join other firms or start their own,...
In the News
13 April 2018 -
Investor-Corporate Engagement | Article
13 April 2018 - Spring is in the air, baseball has begun here at FCLTGlobal headquarters in Boston, and the public company earnings reporting season is upon us – thus begins that familiar, yet often tedious, quarterly dance done by companies and the analysts that cover them. The quarterly earnings call looms large on most corporate calendars, regularly consuming significant amounts of time to prepare, but are investors and companies making the best use of this venue for regular interaction? Many of the most commonly asked questions on earnings conference...
Report
29 March 2018 - We very much appreciate the time and energy of all those who made this a highly productive day devoted to discussing practical actions to encourage long-term business and investment decisions. We were encouraged that leaders from five continents gathered to engage in this important work, and we are particularly grateful to our 42 Founder and Member organizations, our board of directors, and our strategic advisors who all played a role in making this important event a success. While it is impossible to capture all the energy...
In the News
18 March 2018 - Sarah Williamson, head of the Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCLT), said the not-for-profit organisation was developing “some sort of scorecard” that would show whether the world was shifting its gaze beyond the short term. “We want to see more capital moving to a long-term view but how do we know if we’re moving the dial?” Williamson said.
Article
12 March 2018 - On 28 February, the 2018 Focusing Capital on the Long Term Summit convened more than 150 members and select business leaders in a closed-door event to address the problem of short-term behaviors in capital markets.
In the News
7 March 2018 - More than 150 corporate, investment and regulatory leaders last week issued a call to action intended to help the markets take a less short-term perspective. The gathering in New York, which included BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Unilever CEO Paul Polman, McKinsey & Co CEO Dominic Barton and SEC chair Jay Clayton, featured discussions on how investors and issuers can work together to protect long-term shareholder value creation.
