(3BL Media/Justmeans) – CEOs have a key responsibility to ensure that sustainability goals are incorporated into their long-term business strategy. The approach of short-termism is detrimental to their business interests, particularly as consumers, investors and other stakeholders increasingly expect businesses to become a force for societal change and create a long-term legacy.
The inaugural CECP CEO Investor Forum, held recently in NYC, brought this long-term thinking on part of the business heads into sharp focus. Prominent CEOs and executives from different business sectors came together to publicly share first-ever long-term business plans to an audience of nearly 200 major investors representing over $20 trillion in assets under management.
The first convening of its kind, the CEO Investor Forum came in response to the growing consensus of CECP’s CEOs and leaders from the global investment community that the current market focus on short-term performance can adversely affect their ability to generate sustained value.
One of the key takeaways from the event was that ESG factors are indisputably financially material. For instance, employee and public safety is material for PG&E, the energy utility; data privacy is material for technology companies such as IBM; and ensuring access to quality healthcare for all is a material factor for healthcare companies such as Humana.
The event participants called for quarterly investor communications to become building blocks of longer-term plans and disclosure. They also voiced their views on the fundamental importance of CEOs conveying their long-term performance outlook to describe how they serve key stakeholders including customers, employees, and communities, as well as shareholders.
Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP, said that there is clearly a positive shift towards long-term thinking, but a lot still remains to be done with two-thirds of CEOs reporting that they spend the balance of their time focused on short-term performance.
Speakers and presenters during the Forum included CEOs from Nielsen, Humana, Citi, Welltower, PG&E, BD, Vanguard, and the CFO of IBM. The event also featured an address from Robert Pozen, Senior Lecturer, MIT; Former President, Fidelity Investments. Dominic Barton, Global M.D., McKinsey, also shared research demonstrating that long-term companies exhibit stronger financial performance over time.
Source: 3BL Media
Image Credit: CECP
This post was originally published on Justmeans.com
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