Press release dated of 19 March 2012 From a Stewardship Working Party consisting of Aviva Investors, BlackRock, Governance for Owners, Railpen Investments, Ram Trust and USS supported by Tomorrow’s Company  Investors publish recommendations and road map for improving quality of stewardship

The UK has the world’s first code for investor stewardship. Improving the quality and quantity of investor stewardship will help make the code a working reality. 20/20 vision is needed to clarify what is meant by investor stewardship and to find ways to help investors and companies put this into practice building on many years of progress in UK corporate governance. Introducing value-adding stewardship programmes takes time but we anticipate full and effective implementation will have been achieved by 2020. Our ideas are aimed at the UK but we believe that they will be of value in other markets. We believe that a critical mass of investor stewards is vital. We also recognise that not every shareholder can or needs to be a good steward. There is nothing wrong in NOT signing up to the Stewardship Code when an institutional investor has products that are not suitable, or is too small, or is a non-believer in the benefits of stewardship. The findings in this report represent both our...

For our second 'Tomorrow's Adaptive Organisation' roundtable, Ian Powell, senior partner and chairman of PwC UK, shared his vision of leadership and culture with us.  Ian Powell told his story of being a leader in a professional services firm – how he is a ‘lifer’ at PwC, and gradually moved up through the organisation until he became chairman of the UK firm in 2008. Through his different experiences in varying roles, he developed his leadership approach based on authenticity and integrity.  The first part of the report develops his vision and culture of PwC, aiming to be iconic – ‘the number one in professional services, always front of mind’. The second part  focuses on the alignment between behaviours and values.

On 15 November 2011 Tomorrow's Company launched the first report in a programme on employee voice being undertaken in partnership with the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA). The report ‘Rethinking voice – for sustainable business success’ describes how employee voice is critical for the future of UK plc. Employee voice involves a two-way communication and an honest and trusting relationship between the organisation and its staff. Other project partners include BAE Systems, British Gas, HSBC, IAC Group, Thomson and Unipart, who enrich the report with their own experiences and challenges of voice.  Finally it sets out a framework that pulls together the factors that we think impact on the quality and effectiveness of employee voice in organisations.

The conference explored how companies can inspire themselves by and through nature, by developing and implementing 'natural business strategies' into their business models. This helps businesses become both sustainable and successful in an increasingly challenging and uncertain global climate. You can download Michael Bremans' slides here. Michael, who is chairman of Ecover International, was a keynote speaker on the day.