"I see HR as having a distinctive competence which, aligned with the other parts of the organisation, can make the whole stronger."Paul Drechsler, chairman and chief executive of Wates Group, developed his leadership skills and vision through interactions with inspirational leaders and a supportive HR department during the early stages of his career at ICI. Today Paul, as the chairman and chief executive of Wates Group, gets energised when he sees how the values of his organisation are lived through its people. But having values alone is not enough – they need to be evidenced-based and leaders need to embody them in their actions. HR plays a fundamental role in bringing the different parts of the business together and even sometimes ensures that leaders live the values of their organisation.

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.

Tomorrow’s Corporate Reporting: A critical system at risk focuses on the systems architecture and the behaviours and values of its stakeholders. Not on the content of the ‘ideal corporate report’. By corporate reporting we mean all the mechanisms by which companies communicate their performance and activity to their stakeholders, with a particular emphasis on the flow of information into the investment community.The study looked at:What aspects of the system are preventing or supporting the effective development of corporate reporting? And what changes are needed to make the system fit for purpose for the future? During the research, 145 individuals provided evidence, were interviewed or engaged through roundtable discussions, representing 118 organisations from 22 countries across five continents. The report explains the components of the current system and highlights that very few, if any, stakeholders see it as a system – rather they see particular pieces of the jigsaw. The...

Natural capital – our ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources – underpins economies, societies and individual wellbeing. The values of its myriad benefits are, however, often overlooked or poorly understood. They are rarely taken fully into accountthrough economic signals in markets, or in day to day decisions by business and citizens, nor indeed reflected adequately in the accounts of society. The steady loss of forests, soils, wetlands and coral reefs is closely tied to this economic invisibility. So too are the losses of species and of productive assets like fisheries, driven partly by ignoring values beyond the immediate and private. We are running down our natural capital stock without understanding the value of what we are losing. Missed opportunities to invest in this natural capital contribute to the biodiversity crisisthat is becoming more evident and more pressing by the day. The degradation of soils, air, water and biological resources can negatively impact on...