The increasing segmentation of global markets and divergence of standards are two challenges that our clients are facing. Morrow Sodali is uniquely placed to assist them to meet these challenges, head-on, with our comprehensive end-to-end advisory services.

Most of my clients, especially in the financial sector, have been late in turning what was, until recently, a communications exercise into an important strategy and risk perspective. The next big challenge they need to address is homogenizing the bewildering array of ESG disclosure standards.

The period of global convergence that has characterized the last four decades has ended. Supply chains are being permanently broken and relocated closer to home. As a result, our work will become increasingly “national” in character. While the U.S. and EU will continue to be single regulatory spaces, other areas of operation might become more challenging to manage on a regional basis, and we will have to adapt accordingly.

In the near future, much of the communications between companies and their shareholders will be automatized creating a challenge of commoditization for some Morrow Sodali services. Size will matter and we intend to be at the very top. What will help us achieve this is our extensive reach in collecting, aggregating and using data.

Morrow Sodali has an opportunity to position itself as the leading end-to-end provider of governance and shareholder services and a wide-scope corporate consultant akin to the Big Four, especially as pressure on consultants to limit conflicts of interest continues to grow. Also, the enormous amount of data that we are collecting will provide a significant comparative advantage in this journey.