The social drivers of the free market economy - Blackrock calls for a wider aperture

Blackrock's Larry Fink has called for company boards to improve their 'long-term value creation and work to build a better framework for serving all your stakeholders', embracing a social purpose.

Within the context of better articulated strategies, Fink argues that 'Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate.'

He adds, 'Without a sense of purpose, no company, either public or private, can achieve its full potential. It will ultimately lose the license to operate from key stakeholders. It will succumb to short-term pressures to distribute earnings, and, in the process, sacrifice investments in employee development, innovation, and capital expenditures that are necessary for long-term growth.'

At demyst, we describe this outlook as a wide aperture. Research supports our view that the most important characteristic of any board is trust. Without trust, unhelpful and ultimately destructive behaviours ensue from the board downwards, negatively impacting investors, other stakeholders and communities. On a solid foundation of trust, a strong culture that frees capability and sensitive, long-term performance can develop and thrive.

If you would like to talk to us about our ideas towards the next generation board, we'd really like to hear from you.

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demyst is a board performance consultancy that provides an added cognitive edge to the dynamics within top leadership teams. We help you lay the relational groundwork and supporting machinery to promote long-term innovation and agile leadership.

With almost three decades working directly within boards and breakthrough science from practicing psychologists, neuroscientists and those leading academic research, we have developed programmes and tools to help augment your board’s impetus, to help you achieve measurable performance gains and commercial outcomes.