June Monthly Briefing: Stewardship: The Next Leadership Imperative

Our views on what matters

As countries emerge from lockdown, and the volume increases around building back better, it’s fitting that our focus for this month’s Briefing is on Stewardship. Well-stewarded businesses uphold their responsibility and commitments to all stakeholders, making decisions, even during tough and uncertain times, with an eye to long-term value creation. With a recent survey of Fortune 500 CEOs showing 48.2% believe that the pandemic will accelerate the move towards stakeholder capitalism, our lead article on ‘Stewardship in business: Navigating the storm’ explores how proactive stakeholder engagement and long-term risk management can help business leaders to act as stewards in the interests of all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

Our guest contributor, Stewardship Asia, highlights that with our system of wealth creation at a crossroads; in a crisis, sound stewardship may be the difference between a firm surviving or not, and how well it bounces back.

News stories in June reinforce that taking long-term decisions makes good business sense. New BNP Paribas research proves the business performance and attraction of those companies rooted in ESG practices, for both investors and talent. While the new UK Stewardship Code 2020 will encourage asset managers to fulfil their responsibilities, and likely see the shift towards stakeholder capitalism gain further momentum.

As borne out by our Impact of Covid-19 research, we believe that businesses guided by values and making stewardship-based decisions are more resilient and will emerge stronger post-Covid, with their actions today increasing trust and loyalty with key stakeholders.

Asset managers forced to disclose pandemic failures under new Stewardship Code

Will the revised UK Stewardship Code 2020 ensure asset managers, investors and companies fulfil their stewardship responsibilities, and accelerate the shift to stakeholder capitalism?

Australia's oldest brewing family shows how responsible business builds resilience against shocks

How Coopers Brewery, Australia’s oldest family owned and run brewery, has proved that strong principles can serve as a compass and create loyalty in a downturn.

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Sustainable funds are outperforming their peers during the pandemic, according to BNP Paribas

How investors have been “doubling down” on companies that embrace ESG and are taking stewardship responsibilities seriously.

Stewardship in business: Navigating the storm

The Covid-19 pandemic has tested businesses’ ability to balance stakeholder needs and sustainability over the long term. How stewardship can help business leaders to navigate the current uncertainty.

Stewardship in Crisis: The notion of stewardship has never been more relevant than today.

Stewardship Asia is a thought leadership centre seeking to contribute to institutional capacity building. Here it explains the benefits of stewardship actions to business organisations and leaders under the pandemic.

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