Resources
We conduct original research on the causes of short-term business decisions and work to find practical solutions.
Article
17 March 2017 - Earlier this year, together with the McKinsey Global Institute, we co-authored an article in the Harvard Business Review, “Finally, Proof That Managing for the Long Term Pays Off.” Based on an analysis of 615 large and mid-cap U.S. publicly listed companies from 2001 to 2015, it highlighted the benefits to long-termism, including higher corporate earnings growth and overall financial performance, and a greater growth in job creation and GDP (a longer summary is available here). This generated much thoughtful discussion on the role of long-termism and economic growth from...
Article
10 March 2017 - We recently spoke to FCLT Global CEO Sarah Williamson following her attendance at the Asia Business Council 2017 Spring Forum in Vietnam, which focused on the need for patient capital and long-term stewardship at a time where there growing recognition among governments and businesses that traditional models are broken, as well as extraordinary pressure from stakeholders calling for the adoption of a longer-term view. Sarah shared her reflections on the Forum, the current state of long-termism in emerging markets, lessons learned from family companies in Asia, and the...
In the News
2 March 2017 - Schumpeter’s recent column on corporate short-termism suggests that “the solution is to prod incumbent firms to invest vast amounts and insulate their managers from investors” (February 18th). On the contrary, the solutions should be much more targeted to how capital markets really work. We are exploring two such solutions. One is rethinking the quarterly guidance process to engage managers with, rather than insulate them from, investors in their long-term strategic thinking. The second solution is to change the relationships and incentives between asset owners and fund...
In the News
16 February 2017 - AS AMERICA’S economy has misfired over the past decade, several grand theories have emerged about what went wrong. Economists fret about secular stagnation, debt hangovers and whether demography explains sluggish growth. In American boardrooms, meanwhile, a widely held view is that a dangerous short-termism has taken hold. This theory contends that investors and executives have become myopic, leading firms to invest too little. Like many business ideas, short-termism fits the experience of some individual business people. But as a theory about how the economy works...
In the News
16 February 2017 - If they do, as many CEOs believe, this is a serious indictment of current corporate governance arrangements and has important policy implications. To take one close to my heart, if short-termism causes underinvestment, it will be a cause of secular stagnation. I am not sure what to believe in this area. On the one hand, there are many anecdotes suggesting that pressures to manage earnings hold back investment. And the short-termism view is very widely believed.
Report
8 February 2017 - Corporate short-termism has been the subject of ongoing debate among leaders in business, government, and academia for decades, but hard evidence on the impact of short-termism on company performance and economic growth has remained scarce. To fill this gap, MGI created a systematic measurement of long- and short-termism at the company level. Its findings show that companies classified as “long term” outperform their shorter-term peers on a range of key economic and financial metrics. Based on an analysis of 615 large and mid-cap U.S. publicly listed companies...
In the News
8 February 2017 - Does pressure to deliver short-term earnings undermine the long-term performance of U.S. companies? That’s been a hotly-debated issue in corporate America for a long time. (I remember the day in the 1980s when the late Senator Paul Tsongas visited The Wall Street Journal to inform us he was going to run for president and make eliminating quarterly earnings a key plank in his campaign!) But the debate has gotten hotter in the last decade, with surveys of CEOs suggesting pressure to deliver short-term results is on...
In the News
8 February 2017 - On the day of the first-ever board meeting of FCLT Global, chair Mark Wiseman made the nonprofit’s position clear: “Each and every day that a short-term decision is made, we are destroying value.” Four months later, the group has the data to back Wiseman up. On average, U.S. companies with a long-term focus reported 47 percent higher revenue than other large and midsize businesses from 2001 to 2014, according to a study by McKinsey & Co. expected to be released today. They also showed less volatility...
In the News
7 February 2017 - This has long seemed intuitively true to us. We’ve seen companies such as Unilever, AT&T, and Amazon succeed by sticking resolutely to a long-term view. And yet we have not had the comprehensive data needed to quantify the payoff from managing for the long term — until now. New research, led by a team from McKinsey Global Institute in cooperation with FCLT Global, found that companies that operate with a true long-term mindset have consistently outperformed their industry peers since 2001 across almost every financial measure...