“A lack of long-term stewardship by company heads and shareholders is at the heart of the current financial crisis, an influential think-tank says in a report published on Wednesday. Tomorrow’s Company, whose previous research has helped shape UK company law, urges the government to understand better the effects of the growing “casino economy”, where activities such as derivatives trading are often far removed from the real economy activity to which they theoretically relate. The report warns against the search for scapegoats for the current crisis and says that it is wrong to attack private equity, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds for irresponsibility, noting that different shareholders perform different functions. However, it condemns the practice of borrowing shares for voting purposes and asks if investors need to toughen up their engagement to change company behaviour or divest holdings in companies with particular shortcomings. Mark Goyder, Tomorrow’s Company...

The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Tomorrow’s Company are setting up a global study on how to improve corporate reporting. We are now launching the first phase, which includes a call for evidence.  Please click download for more information and to contribute your evidence. To respond to our Call, please email evidence@tomorrowscompany.com.

This Briefing Document, by Tomorrow's Company, summarises the strengths and weaknesses of both aid and trade within a poverty reduction strategy. It shows that it is important to distinguish between different types of aid, as the efficacy of each is dependent on the context in which it is administered. An assessment of the success of trade led growth strategies in reducing poverty is made and the difficulties faced by developing nations in following such a strategy are explored. The Tomorrow's Company Briefing Documents are intended to provide the reader with a comprehensive introduction to a particular topic. You can find the full list of Briefing Documents on forceforgood.com here.

SMEs make a vital contribution to our economy - they are huge sources of jobs, innovation and are essential to our communities. But when we talk about the low-carbon economy of the future, it is all too often large businesses that lead the way. In these difficult economic times, many small and medium-sized businesses may well be missing opportunities to not only reduce their cost, but also to open up to new possibilities in the low-carbon economy. We believe that this can largely be explained by the confusing and often contradictory information that is out there - not to any failing on the part of SMEs. Tomorrow's Company works with and for the business community to develop effective solutions to the problems companies face: we have created this guide in partnership with companies, government departments and organisations to assist leaders of businesses large and small, to make the low-carbon transition in a way that makes good business sense and helps secure future business...

These are the slides for a lecture by Pavan Sukhdev.  It was delivered at a Tomorrow's Company event at the East India Club on the 3rd of December.  For more about the event read Tony Manwaring's, our CEO's, blog here or visit their corporate website www.tomorrowscompany.com.