Over the past year, we have built on the work of the Focusing Capital on the Long Term Initiative to create a fully functional not-for-profit organization with an ambitious research agenda that is well underway. It has been an extremely busy and productive year, and we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight our progress and thank our members for their contributions to this important work.
The highlights include:
Research
Launched our research agenda with member convenings and released two research reports and associated media with McKinsey:
- “Rising to the Challenge of Short-Termism,” based on a survey of C-suite executives and board members from around the world that revealed growing short-term pressures from an evolving number of causes.
Communications and Events
- Rebranded the organization and built a new website, publicly launched the new FCLTGlobal entity and developed a communications strategy and media relationships with WSIB and Edelman, who assisted in writing and refining our messages.
- Increased the profile of FCLTGlobal through:
- Presentations of the issue of short-termism and ideas to promote long-term behavior at 15 FCLTGlobal-led, co-hosted or third-party events in 11 countries. Thank you to BlackRock, CPPIB, Dow, Kempen, McKinsey, Schroders, and Tata for hosting or co-hosting with us this year.
- Coverage of FCLTGlobal in leading business publications, including The Financial Times, The Economist, Fortune, The Globe and Mail, The Harvard Business Review, Quartz, Investment and Pensions, Responsible Investor, and Institutional Investor.
- Increased brand reach on social media with FCLTGlobal accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Membership
- Expanded our membership to 32 members from 22 at inception, developing a membership strategy, building relationships with member executives, delegates and organizations including visiting members around the world.
Governance
- Established a high caliber board, as well as by-laws, subcommittees, and processes. With the June 2017 meeting, we completed a full board cycle of four full board meetings and three to four meetings of each of three subcommittees. Made significant headway incorporating as an entity, determining the appropriate tax status and undertaking those filings. Thank you to Sullivan & Cromwell and CPPIB for all their assistance in establishing our governance.
Organization:
- Hired and built a team of eight full-time and one part-time staff from a standing start, established the organizational objectives and culture, installed financial controls and policies, secured real estate, banking, legal, payroll and accounting relationships.
As this start-up year comes to a close, we are proud of the progress we have made, and cognizant of how much we have to do. We are grateful for the deep support of our founders, members and their teams, and are excited about our ability to have a real impact on increasing long-term behaviors in capital allocation decisions.
