It is an understatement to say that Neil Woodford made plenty of mistakes during his brief time as an independent fund manager (about five years, depending on how you measure it). But the Oracle of Oxford, as he was dubbed, did set out to encourage something we need more of — patient capital.
Evidence shows that investing over the longer term delivers superior performance, and that companies with a long-term view outperform shorter-term peers in terms of revenue, earnings and job creation. Despite this, many people — retail and institutional investors, and pension fund trustees — continue to obsess over short-term returns.
In research published by the think tank FCLT, half of the corporate executives surveyed agreed that longer time horizons for business decisions would
