Main content section

Mishcon Purpose

Purpose Leadership

Helping leaders and fiduciaries understand the changing nature of their duties, and how to manage risk and grow value in meeting them.

Business performance is increasingly measured by not only financial capital, but intangible, natural and social capital. To bolster and invest in these new forms of capital, businesses must consider their impact on society and the environment. This requires listening and engaging with a wider range of stakeholders such as those impacted by a business's operational activities and strategic decisions. As a result, the role of business in society is changing, and as a consequence, so is the scope of fiduciary duties across the whole investment chain.

Today, fiduciary duties cover the need to mitigate any risk and capture any opportunity not only in relation to financial capital but also with regards to intangible, ecological and social capital. Businesses must now manage all these assets in an integrated way.

These new responsibilities for business leaders are behind the increasing significance that ESG has in influencing short and long term financial performance. Commentators have challenged the primacy of shareholder value and profit maximisation as business leaders are already seeing the value created when accounting for alternative forms of capital. Businesses are beginning to see that there is no conflict between acting with a clear and sustainable purpose and delivering value for shareholders and others.

To reap the benefits of new forms of capital and minimise associated risks, business leaders must be aware of their expanding fiduciary duties. Mishcon Purpose delivers insight and training to business leaders on their changing roles and responsibilities in a shifting legal landscape where fiduciary duties are evolving across jurisdictions. We address specific ESG issues concerning the business such as: