Talent, Strategy, Risk: How Investors and Boards Are Redefining TSR

Long-term value creation—the board's new agenda.

A big shift in public ownership has created a new set of challenges for boards. Much of the $14 trillion of assets that firms like Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street manage is now held in index funds, creating a huge class of permanent institutional investors who own almost 60 percent of the Fortune 500. These investors are stating in no uncertain terms that simply managing for short-term shareholder profit is not acceptable.

Bill McNabb, Ram Charan, and Dennis Carey have been on the front lines of these changes with the investment community, corporate boards, and top-level management teams. Since TSR (total shareholder return) cannot keep the short and long term in balance, the authors argue, boards should focus on a different kind of TSR—talent, strategy, and risk—because decisions and actions around these factors, more than any others, determine whether or not a company creates long-term value. This book redefines the board's agenda and explains how to:

• Build and incentivize the right leadership team
• Help leaders take a longer view and communicate it to investors
• Refresh board composition and create diversity to meet the new challenges
• Keep major risks, such as cyberattacks and sexual harassment allegations, front and center
• Analyze the business through the eyes of a shareholder activist

With the new realities of corporate ownership, boards need to lead for the long term. This authoritative book shows them how.