Money Talks The Conference Board notes that it has been a record year for shareholder proposals involving environmental and social initiatives. However, the outcome of such an initiative at Tysons Foods shows that most shareholders are focused on a company’s bottom line. They voted overwhelmingly (86.3 percent to 13.7 percent) against even studying the reduced use of plastic packaging. The proposal called for a report on more sustainable packaging produced at reasonable cost and omitting any proprietary information. However, most shareholders may have seen it as a camel’s nose under the tent moment. Cultural Animal Welfare The EU Parliament approved a report on improved on-farm animal welfare but with some caveats. It d...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.