The UK Financial Reporting Council have today published the new UK Stewardship Code.  The Stewardship Code sits alongside and is complementary to the UK Corporate Governance Code, published in May, and includes principles on:

• The monitoring of investee companies;
• The escalation of activities taken to protect or enhance shareholder value;
• Collective engagement;
• Voting policy;
• Managing conflicts of interest; and
• Public reporting and reporting to clients.

Following England’s tense victory over Slovenia in the World Cup this week which I watched with fellow CIMA staff in the Council Chamber, I attended a Tomorrow’s Corporate Reporting project meeting with colleagues from Tomorrow’s Company and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The meeting was significantly more relaxed but nonetheless successful.

 

What’s this project all about? Well it was featured on June 24 in the prestigious Accountancy column in the London Financial Times which is great news. For a number of years CIMA, along with others, have been striving to promote good practice in corporate reporting especially in relation to narrative reporting of strategy, business models, incentive alignment, corporate governance and risk.

 

 

 

Who wants a bet? It’s not a fair bet so you don’t have to pay me anything when I win.

 

The bet is this: that underwork is a far broader and more consequential problem than overwork. To win the bet, you have to support your case with evidence that compares the levels and impact of overwork with those of underwork in any major economy. (I told you it was unfair).

Overwork is a badge of honour. Even when you are working 80 hours a week, there is still a profound sense of pride in your contribution, in your employer’s need for you and your irreplaceability.