#11: How We Work with Financial Clients
Today we discuss how we help asset managers and other financial clients to succeed by integrating system change into their responsible investing strategies.
Our Goals
In working with financial clients, our top goals are to:
Implement the most advanced responsible investing strategies and provide the highest possible sustainability benefits and impacts
Reduce investment risk and increase returns by uncovering hidden value that is not addressed by conventional financial and ESG analysis
Attract new investment by offering the first responsible investing funds with the potential to resolve climate change and other SDG problems
The SCI team has the expertise needed to provide these benefits. Frank Dixon pioneered return-enhancing ESG, developed the System Change Investing concept, created the Global System Change framework, and published extensively on system change.
Our Services
SCI provides customized engagement strategies, adapted to clients’ financial, regulatory, data, research, marketing and other constraints. A typical full engagement includes four phases – Initial Assessment, Construction, Marketing & Launch, and SCI Evolution & Ongoing Support. Services in each area include the following:
Initial Assessment
System Change Assessment – Advise how to launch SCI funds and/or integrate into existing ESG funds. Suggest system change rating model and data strategies
ESG Assessment – Evaluate current ESG and advise how to improve financial and sustainability performance
Data – Evaluate existing data sources and ESG data providers. Identify existing ESG metrics that can be used to assess system change performance. Recommend additional system change metrics and data sources
Preliminary Research (if requested) – Provide system change ratings of client-identified companies. Assess correlation to financial performance - use for marketing support
Legal – Based on legal assessment: integrate model into existing approaches or launch new funds. Licensing Agreement/IP arrangements
Construction
SCI Model Development – Enhance client ESG models by adding system change metrics. Choose & customize: SCI rating models range from introductory to full whole system approaches. They can be customized based on client data availability, ESG models, and existing ESG products. Alpha: identify system change factors and metrics with highest impact on investment returns
Training – Rating: train ESG analysts how to rate corporate system change performance, Communication: train analysts and others on how to describe, frame and write about system change performance
Research – Rate companies using SCI models, public and private data sources, in-house/ESG vendor research, AI. Provide advanced, return-enhancing corporate sustainability ratings
Fund Management – Assist to integrate financial, ESG and system change analysis in ways that maximize financial and sustainability benefits
Marketing & Launch
Awareness Raising – Inform and educate management, employees, allies and clients about the importance of system change and benefits of SCI
Marketing – Reputation: position company as global responsible investing leader (publications, conference presentations, podcasts, interviews). Client meetings: help secure new clients and maintain existing ones by providing system change and SCI expertise
Launch – Preparation, Support execution of launch
SCI Evolution & Ongoing Support
Model Evolution – Whole system models: evolve preliminary to advanced whole system rating strategies. Alpha: adjust metrics and weightings in ways that maximize investment returns. Sustainability and SDG benefits: based on experience, adjust models in ways that maximize benefits. System change performance: continuously evolve models in ways that accelerate system change and related benefits
Research Support – Provide ongoing ESG and system change expertise to analysts and fund managers. Train on use of advanced system change models, data acquisition and analysis
Corporate Engagement – Train engagement staff on advanced corporate system change strategies. Assistance with Engagement: encourage and assist companies to set up system change strategies
Marketing – Continue to position company as global ESG and SCI leader
In summary, SCI provides all the services and support needed to effectively integrate system change and position clients as global responsible investing leaders.
Please contact us for more information and quotes.