Casting my eye at the scattering wrecks of companies brought low by poor decision-making in the last 20 years, it can be said that there was a common theme is the prioritisation of profit-making and personal enrichment that fuelled the road to hell. Little thought was given to values that would contribute to the long-term sustainability of the company and benefit the broader community group.

BP’s Gulf disaster revealed a history of shaving the safety margins to maximise profit, a multitude of banks with their trading scandals which revealed a blatant disregard for the law and belief that self-enrichment trumped all things, the many multi-national companies that shuffle money to avoid paying a reasonable tax in countries where they enjoy the benefits of stability and certainty that a decent tax base funding infrastructure, education and health provides.

It is heartening to see that a recent survey by the CFA Institute of more than 1,500 investment portfolio managers around the world are taking more interest in environment, social and governance (ESG) issues but the underlying value set remains the same. It is telling that 61% of respondents would only be willing to pay 50% or less of what they spend in independent verification of financial statements on independent verification of ESG reporting by companies. Just 11% would spend as much in ESG verification as they would on financial verification.

It is also heartening that, according to Management Today, Mark Hafaele, the Chief Investment Officer at UBS has had a change of heart and recognises that companies that take ESG seriously can deliver share price growth and profitability. According to an interview in Management Today, Mr Hafaele noted that the consideration of ESG issues can de-risk investment returns.

It is fascinating, however, despite the rich lessons history has to offer, the professional investment industry still places far more value in reviewing the financials of a company – which can be a very creative story, rather than the reporting on environment, social and governance matters which can reveal much better a company’s approach to a broader stakeholder group and genuine understanding of a risk wider than ‘will this affect my share price this quarter’.

It is myopic also that most conversations about risk are associated with some sort of mathematical modelling and an analysis of numbers. Unfortunately, the impact of human decision making, driven by their underlying values is very difficult to create a data set around, except if you learn from history and consider philosophy. Ignoring what cannot be inputted into a mathematical model and measured means you increase your risk of being blind-sided by the inevitability of human fallibility driven by a set of values that promote fear and greed.