Advisors

We conclude that the quality – and not the amount – of engagement by shareholders determines whether the influence of equity markets on corporate decisions is beneficial or damaging to the long-term interests of companies. And we conclude that public equity markets currently encourage exit (the sale of shares) over voice (the exchange of views with the company) as a means of engagement, replacing the concerned investor with the anonymous trader.

Professor John Kay

Kay review of UK equity markets and long-term decision making. November 2012

...when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind;

Lord Kelvin

Physicist

E.1.1 The Chairman should ensure that the views of shareholders are communicated to the Board as a whole. E.1.2 The Board should state in the annual report the steps they have taken to ensure that the members of the Board, and in particular the non-executive directors, develop an understanding of the views of major shareholders about their company...

Financial Reporting Council

The UK Corporate Governance Code. September 2012

In God we trust, all others (must) bring data

W. Edwards Deming

Engineer, statistician, academic and management consultant

'Know what you own and know why you own it

Peter Lynch

Manager of the Magellan Fund

Honest, nuanced, constructive and, as necessary, challenging feedback is best for all parties

Enhancing stewardship dialogue

The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators