The investors you want disdain ‘short termism’
McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance
Accelerating sustainable and inclusive growth through bold strategies.
By Jay Gelb , Vartika Gupta, CFA , Robert McCarthy, CFA , and Werner Rehm
It’s easy to understand why managers focus on quarterly earnings and meeting short-term guidance. The short-term investors and their proxies, sell-side analysts, are the most vocal participants in earnings calls and most active in contacting companies for the insights upon which they trade.
However, long-term institutional investors (also known as intrinsic investors) care most about long-term value creation. In our recent survey of chief investment officers of leading global funds that make large, selective investments in equities, the respondents said they want management teams to prioritize the basics: cost optimization, capital productivity, and product innovation (Exhibit 1).
The same investors told us that CEOs’ biggest downfalls are overfocusing on short-term guidance and failing to divest unproductive assets (Exhibit 2).
Companies should not prioritize short-term financial performance at the expense of long-term value creation.
Senior Financial Accountant ll Oxford Brookes University First Class BSc. Honours II ACCA Strategic Professional ll Driven by Purpose and Impact ll Open to relocation
1 个月In addition, I think short-termism may lead to unsustainable growth as management tend to overlook long term value creators, like ethical implications, staff long term development, staff wellbeing, environmental impacts etc. At some point, reality kicks in with decline performance and profit due to high staff turnover, customers boycott, loss of brand reputation etc. Hence, strategic decisions should aim to maximise long term performance as well as providing the necessary short-term results.
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1 个月Useful tips.