I spent some time in reflections on Philosophy on Investment Stewardship pursuant my sense of duty to either understand the motivations of those who trust on me or my business, or to be able to commit and honor the fiduciary duties when the investors brings me the honor – Yes, the honor! as is a matter of trust- to be part of the boards where they have investments-.

I took the frame of the Global principles of BlackRock 2023 to guide my reflections;  I enjoy a lot to see the changes and evolutions in the Environmental Social and Governance matters which follows the modern challenges but, what about considering inherently it imposes limits of the autonomy of a board of directors?… in the aim of long term value creation using «sustainability» approach the decision makers -balancing risk, opportunities, reasonable judgement and fiduciary duties -can destroy short term value – Yes, can be destroyed!- there is a thin line between the economic respectable decisions and long term perspective in a -widely- BANI World .

Some bottom line questions could be: What is the economic and social goal of a business organization? Are there any Universal Consensus over that role?

Clearly No!. The Scholars and ideologists use to have fun with this!.

Who arbitrates?

The investor?, at the end, is their money –  freely decides which purposes they have for their investment-. Event with externalities for third parties? It is morally acceptable? Do We need to limit such freedom as a society? What about the conflict with the standard of independent judgement of Companies directors?

The Society? selecting service and products that supports social values – irrespectively of the short there benefits for customers or investors-, how true or realistic is this as the competition usually ends on factual Corporate concentrations?,  and,  Who acts on behalf of The Society?

The Regulators? but, Who guards the Guardian?

The following paragraph is an indicative of the recent discussion from one investor side,

«BlackRock is not in the position to dictate a companies strategy or its implementation. We engage on long-term corporate strategy, purpose and financial resilience to understand how companies are aligning their business decision-making with their purpose and adjusting their strategy and/or capital allocation plans to address the risks and opportunities of their operations in order to deliver long-term value for their shareholders.»

Even though they have their investment priorities aligned with the World Sustainable Development Goals, Read here the priorities,

Is it a paradox?

Seems the matter is on fire!, Good for the blog.