Tag Archives: Financial Time supplement

Published: Tuesday November 07 2017Stephen Barber digs into the foundations of sustainable investment.Humans are not, by nature, very sustainable. We collapse and dissolve all too soon.It’s because life is so desperately brief for all of us that a capacity to think and act sustainably is such a daunting task – yet, when achieved, it is also a deeply impressive concept. Housed in fragile bodies, daily subject to short-term appetites, we are sometimes nevertheless capable of identifying with...

Published: Monday November 06 2017Two sixth-generation members of the Boghossian family are continuing to develop high-end jewellery with their father and uncle, blending Eastern and Western cultures to create contemporary masterpieces.In the exclusive world of high-end jewellers, the Geneva-based Boghossian House is making waves with stunning pieces of fine and high jewellery that reflect its Armenian heritage. Now run by the fifth and sixth generations of the family, its origins date back...

Published: Friday November 03 2017Peace Boat, founded by a group of Japanese students over three decades ago, sails around the world, enabling people to engage across borders, fostering dialogue and mutual cooperation – a floating bridge between culturesThe world faces many serious challenges, such as armed conflicts, nuclear threats, poverty, disease and environmental threats – and finding solu­tions often seems to be beyond the reach of individuals and communities. But in 1983, a Japanese...

Published: Thursday November 02 2017Olivier Capt says that technology will transform the wealth management industry, leading to higher client engagement, better advice and superior service.Winston Churchill once said: ‘Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.’ This is exactly what technology is driving today. Intense simplification is at work in all industries and customers now purchase, book, compare and select without relying on intermediaries.Humans are known to be lazy...

Published: Wednesday November 01 2017The former UN climate chief who presided over the negotiations that led to the 2015 Paris agreement on global warming is now urging investors, businesses and policymakers to grab ‘the opportunity of the century’ and invest in an economy-wide transition to a low carbon world.Words like ‘2020’, ‘milestones’ and ‘optimism’ which are scribbled on the windows-cum-whiteboard in Christiana Figueres’ reception room give some clues into the thinking of the former...

Published: Tuesday October 31 2017Renaud de Planta argues that if the majority of investors embrace index funds, they are likely to lead to less efficient markets and weaker corporate governance.To its growing band of proponents, passive investing is looked on as a panacea. Equity tracker funds, we’re told, will rid the finan­cial market of toxic elements and restore it to full health.At first glance, it’s a persuasive argu­ment. Poorly performing and expen­sive active managers have lingered...

Published: Monday October 30 2017Ivan Lansberg and Wendy Ulaszek say that in addition to running the company, an integral part of a successful family enterprise leader’s job is tending to the needs of the family which owns the businesses, whether or notthey are a family memberDuring a recent meeting with the chief executive of a large family-owned European company, we were discussing his succession plan when he stepped aside to take a call. It was from the daughter of a family shareholder on...

Published: Friday October 27 2017Kyongchol (Richard) Kim, Managing Director of a Singapore-based single family office (SFO), describes how he came into his current role, what the investment strategy is, and the advice he would give to anyone thinking of setting up a family office.After working for a government-owned finan­cial institution in South Korea, Kim recognised that his country’s bond and equity markets were too small for its fast-growing pension funds and insurance companies. Buoyed...

Published: Thursday October 26 2017Real Estate expert and founder of Mack Real Estate Group Richard Mack tells Pictet’s Laurent Gabert about his latest venturesAlthough Mack Real Estate is a newcomer, you have been a leading investor in this field for decades. Could you describe your latest venture?In 2013, after selling the real estate private equity business AREA – formerly known as Apollo Real Estate Advisors – our family’s aspiration was for a new firm that would think like a family...

Published: Monday October 23 2017Mattias Ljungman, co-founder and partner at venture capital firm Atomico, says that whatever Donald Trump may want you to think, he and politicians like him are not the decisive change-makers of our age.  It is clear that governments cannot solve our greatest problems on their own. Many of the challenges the world faces today have been on the agenda for years. Two of the greatest – climate change and the provision of adequate and manageable healthcare – have...