Early this week, Larry Fink, the Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, issued his annual letter to CEOs of public companies in which BlackRock is invested. If you haven’t already done so, go read Mr. Fink’s 2018 letter to CEOs before proceeding (it will help you better understand this year’s letter). I’ll wait.
Click HERE to access Mr. Fink’s 2018 Letter to CEOs
Okay. So now you know that in 2018 Mr. Fink urged CEOs to detail their strategy for long-term growth, starting with their company’s purpose. Mr. Fink also announced that BlackRock would be a bit more active in ensuring that BlackRock’s index funds looked at how the companies they held stakes in were going to ensure long-term growth. The 2018 Letter announcement marked a significant change in how index funds at BlackRock would operate. Given BlackRock’s size, this change will have an impact on both the public companies in which it holds stakes as well as other index funds.
In his 2019 Letter, Mr. Fink further refines his message and indicates that laying out a purpose alone is insufficient. Instead, companies need to articulate how they will generate profits long-term and serve all of its stakeholders effectively.
Mr. Fink’s 2019 Letter also asks that CEOs provide leadership (where they can) to help tackle and perhaps solve, social and political issues that are confronting the countries, regions, and communities in which their companies operate. One of these critical issues is retirement. Mr. Fink believes corporations need to reassert their traditional leadership role with respect to retirement that they used to hold. Mr. Fink sees helping workers navigate retirement as leading to the creation of not only a more stable and engaged workforce, but also a more economically secure population in the places a company operates.
Noting the shift in attitudes of the younger generation and the impending large trans-generational asset re-allocation, Mr. Fink argues that corporate valuations will be influenced by the shift in values between the current and younger generations, and companies should recognize that shift and start acting in a manner that will minimize the impact on their valuations.
Finally, Mr. Fink announced BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship engagement priorities for 2019:
- governance, including a company’s approach to board diversity
- corporate strategy and capital allocation
- compensation that promotes long-termism
- environmental risks and opportunities, and
- human capital management.
Mr. Fink indicates that BlackRock will not focus on a company’s day-to-day operations, but will seek to understand a company’s strategy for achieving long-term growth. He also reiterates what his 2018 Letter said, “for engagement to be productive, they cannot occur only during proxy season when the discussion is about an up-or-down vote on proxy proposals. The best outcomes come from a robust, year-round dialogue.”