Many SRI Funds Are Outperforming Benchmarks in 2009
The Appleseed Fund continues its strong performance among domestic equity funds, while Pax World posts highest return on investment among fixed-income products.
A bridge is about to open up that will make things easier but safer for people who want make their investments consistent with their values. Just like a bridge makes traveling between two islands easier, the new rating system to be unveiled at Socap09 will be like taking a train instead of having to paddle through choppy waters.
The bridge, called GIIRS, is being built for people who are trying to make sure their investments have a positive social and environmental impact while they also try to earn a financial return. It’s a tool that makes it easier, safer and clearer for those investors who want to make a difference.
GIIRS (for Global Impact Investing Rating System) is not for everybody; the vast majority of investors are still only about making money, so this tool will likely have no interest for them, except as a curiosity. Not everybody understands the new kind of investing for impact, and some people have more trouble understanding it than others. Investors, who are still loyal to traditional Wall Street finance- first, financial return without active concern about environmental or social impact, seem to find this new way of thinking most troubling.
The iPhone may have all the buzz, but BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion is growing at a much faster clip. In fact, RIM’s growth rates are the fastest of any U.S.-listed company according to Fortune Magazine. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is well down the list, at No. 39. The magazine ranked companies based on a combination of their revenue growth, earnings-per-share growth and a three-year annualized return to investors.
The growing popularity of private-label media is one of the more provocative developments in today’s marketing and media ecosystem. Every marketer, advertising agency, and media company needs to know its benefits, and, just as important, its implications for the industry.
Just about every company has a Web site. But today, many marketers are going further. They are transforming their digital presence into powerful media channels, direct to consumers. The practice is prevalent enough that, as the research firm Outsell Inc. reported in July 2008, about 62 percent of marketers’ online advertising and marketing budgets are spent on their own digital media, up from 58 percent in 2007.
These marketers recognize that with the right mix of content, utility, community, and product, they can create compelling premium experiences for consumers. And they see that these efforts deliver powerful benefits in branding, relationship building, and lead generation.
The growing popularity of “private-label media,” as we call it, is one of the more provocative — and potentially disruptive — developments occurring in today’s marketing and media ecosystem.
To read the full report by Booz & Co consultants Matthew Egol, Leslie H. Moeller, and Christopher Vollmer
See:
Citigroup(C Quote) has reaped considerable scorn for the significant investments the government has made to keep the company afloat. But being on the dole has its privileges — as possibly evidenced by the report today that the Obama administration has awarded Citigroup a $7.7 million contract to help administer the “cash for clunkers” program.
Word of the contract comes as the Senate approved late Thursday a $2 billion extension of the program.
It also comes on the heels of complaints that the government has not sufficiently managed the books on the program, resulting in the confusions over the past week regarding how much, if any, money remained in the coffers of the surprisingly popular car-voucher initiative.
Earlier this week, the Transportation Department announced that Citigroup had been hired to process applications for vouchers for the program. Thursday, Transportation Department spokeswoman Sasha Johnson told Dow Jones that the estimated cost of that contract was $7.7 million.
Officials said the program’s initial $1 billion probably already has been spent, but a paperwork backlog prevented an accurate accounting. The government was able to confirm Wednesday that more than $775 million of the original funds had been spent, accounting for the sale of nearly 185,000 new vehicles.
The additional $2 billion should be enough to help consumers purchase a half-million more new cars, they added, estimating that the extra funding would last into Labor Day.
Shares of Citigroup, which have climbed by more than 30% in the past week, rose 33 cents, or more than 8%, to reach $4.13 in Friday trading. In doing so, the stock cleared the magical $4 mark that had served as its glass ceiling for the past six months.
From TheStreet– – Written by Ty Wenger in New York
Back in March the FT reported that Jack Welch, the former chief of General Electric and champion of shareholder value since the 1980s, had declared the idea that company managers should concentrate on it to be ‘dumb’. His apparent conversion prompts one to ask how different interpretations of shareholder value might influence business behavior, and what might be the economic, social and political implications of that.
Now, ‘value’ can mean several different things. It may refer to an absolute quantity, or a difference between two quantities, or a ratio of two quantities. Examples might be, respectively, a utility, a profit, and a rate of return. An enterprise may therefore aim to pursue a number of non-financial utilities, to achieve revenue or gross margin or profit targets, to produce a given rate of return on investment (“ROI”), and perhaps also to control risk. It may seek a blend of these, perhaps through a process to reach agreement between many stakeholders. Notions of value are held by many people and we cannot assume that they all think about it in the same way, or even that they agree about the nature of the thing being valued. And one could think of kinds of value that cannot be maximized or set off against others because they don’t vary along any kind of scale. Establishing exactly who your constituencies are and what they think and want may turn out to be rather complicated.
Peter Johnson, trained as an accountant, is head of finance at technology company Artihmatica . He has spent his career in various finance roles in the City of London.
No one should be surprised that Goldman Sachs has been asked by regulators for information regarding its compensation practices and its derivatives practices. Chances are that all banks have been asked for similar information. Goldman Sachs’ said it is cooperating with regulators, which were not specifically named, in a recent SEC filing, according to the AP.
The issue for Goldman Sachs is whether this investigation explodes into yet another PR fiasco. The company has some obvious image problems right now. One could argue that these are good problems to have, as they are borne of the company’s extreme success, but they are certainly not to be taken lightly. Well see where all this leads, but the firm’s image will have to play a role in its decision-making. I’m not sure it did before.
Indicators and Metrics for Monitoring and Predicting Performance
One of the most powerful benefits of value network modeling is the ability to monitor, predict and influence performance. Metrics are made simple with the Comprehensive Reports function in the ValueNetwork.com application. In addition to Animations and Detailed Visuals, indicator reports are generated for the Standard Value Network (Role view) and the Collaborative Value Network (Participant view). The text and charts below are drawn from a Standard Value Network (Role-based) Report, using the example of scheduling procedures in a health care organization.
FROM THE GROUND UP SEPTEMBER 9-11, 2009
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