Businesses planning their post-pandemic strategy are likely to be seeking future investment to shore up their balance sheets but directors will need to be mindful of the changing values of stakeholders and in particular those of their customers who in turn are influencing investors.
Before the immense disruption caused globally by the onset of the pandemic, climate change, global warming and the need for a more sustainable form of economics were a major preoccupation.
That preoccupation has not gone away.
While physical attendance at a second summit on ethical finance by international delegates from Government officials, financial institutions, consumer goods corporations, supply chain intermediaries and conservation organisations planned for Edinburgh this month has had to be cancelled, it has now been replaced by a virtual summit.
And this month, the UK’s Investors Association published a paper on the future of investment in which it, too, identified the importance going forward of ethical investment highlighting:
…“Increasing importance of sustainable investment. There is growing customer emphasis on the material impact of sustainability issues on financial returns, notably among institutional clients, as well as a more prominent focus on setting non-financial objectives (for example, to invest in companies and projects that have specific social or environmental benefit).”.
The focus and emphasis among investors is very much on CSR (corporate social responsibility), or its replacement ESG (environmental, social and governance) which is becoming the criteria for oversight of behaviour and values and holding companies to account.
Changing consumer values have been highlighted by others, including the retail “guru” Mary Portas, who has been promoting what she calls the “kindness economy” where, she argues, that shoppers may now be more alert to how businesses treat them, their workers and the planet.
Former BoE (Bank of England) governor Mark Carney also referred to this growing awareness in an article in the Economist last April, where he said that “fundamentally, the traditional drivers of value have been shaken, new ones will gain prominence” and where “public values help shape private value”.
These are issues that company directors will need to be mindful of when formulating their post-pandemic business plans, especially if the plans involve securing future investment.
Returning to pre-pandemic “normal” is not likely to be enough for business survival as the desire among both investors and consumers is for more ethical values and this has not been eroded by the pandemic.
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