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• Article | Harvard Business Review | July–August 2019

  How to Scandal-Proof Your Company

  Paul M. Healy and George Serafeim

  Citation:

  Healy, Paul M., and George Serafeim. "How to Scandal-Proof Your Company." Harvard Business Review 97, no. 4 (July–August 2019): 42–50.  View Details

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• Case | HBS Case Collection | April 2019

  Aperture Investors

  Krishna G. Palepu, George Serafeim and David Lane

  Aperture Investors is a startup investment firm that seeks to disrupt the asset management industry through competitive differentiation by charging investors primarily when its portfolio managers outperform the marketplace. Headed by Wall Street veteran Peter Kraus and backed with substantial and patient seed capital, Aperture seeks to attract both star portfolio managers and assets from mutual funds and hedge funds. Kraus believes that his innovative business model addresses the current dysfunctional fee and incentive structures in the industry, which have led to long-term market underperformance, and that Aperture will address the reasons that are motivating investors to shift to cheaper, passively-managed index and exchange-traded funds.

  Keywords: Business Model; Talent and Talent Management; Investment; Investment Funds; Asset Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Marketing Channels; Emerging Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Motivation and Incentives; Financial Services Industry;

  Citation:

  Palepu, Krishna G., George Serafeim, and David Lane. "Aperture Investors." Harvard Business School Case 119-053, April 2019.  View Details

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• Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | March 2016 (Revised April 2019)

  ESG Metrics: Reshaping Capitalism?

  George Serafeim and Jody Grewal

  In the past twenty-five years, the world had seen an exponential growth in the number of companies reporting environmental, social and governance (ESG) data. Investor interest in ESG data also grew rapidly. A growing belief that increasing levels of social inequality and natural environment degradation were pressing problems that the capitalist system was failing to resolve had led many stakeholders to advocate for changes in measurement and corporate reporting as a potentially powerful “lever” that could move the discussion from “Reimagining” to “Reshaping” Capitalism. Some suggested that increased transparency could change corporate behavior, increase corporate accountability and lead to better outcomes for employees, customers, the environment and local communities. Others suggested that ESG data were value relevant from an investor standpoint and that firms “doing good would do well.” According to this view, investors that used ESG data would be able to make better investment decisions and widespread disclosure of such data would improve market efficiency. However, some commentators doubted the sincerity of company ESG disclosures and suggested that firms that did good were less competitive, and therefore earned lower returns for their shareholders. As the business community entered the second half of the second decade of the twenty first century, whether the widespread adoption of ESG metrics would happen -- and whether, if it did, it would lead to systematic change -- was very much an open question.

  Keywords: Capitalism; sustainability; accountability; corporate social responsibility; Responsibilities to Society; environment; social impact investment; ESG; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Measurement and Metrics; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Accountability; Accounting; Economic Systems;

  Citation:

  Serafeim, George, and Jody Grewal. "ESG Metrics: Reshaping Capitalism?" Harvard Business School Technical Note 116-037, March 2016. (Revised April 2019.)  View Details

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