In his annual letter to CEOs, Mr Fink said chief executives need to lead their staff at a time when the world is in significant turmoil.
He noted that COVID-19 has deepened the erosion of trust in traditional institutions and exacerbated polarisation in many Western societies.
“This polarisation presents a host of new challenges for CEOs. Political activists, or the media, may politicise things your company does. They may hijack your brand to advance their own agendas. In this environment, facts themselves are frequently in dispute, but businesses have an opportunity to lead,” Mr Fink said.
“Employees are increasingly looking to their employer as the most trusted, competent, and ethical source of information — more so than government, the media, and NGOs. That is why your voice is more important than ever.”
Mr Fink said it has never been more essential for CEOs to have a consistent voice, a clear purpose, a coherent strategy, and a long-term view.
“Your company’s purpose is its north star in this tumultuous environment. The stakeholders your company relies upon to deliver profits for shareholders need to hear directly from you — to be engaged and inspired by you. They don’t want to hear us, as CEOs, opine on every issue of the day, but they do need to know where we stand on the societal issues intrinsic to our companies’ long-term success,” he said.
Commenting on the transition to a net zero world, The Blackrock founder, chairman and CEO said “we focus on sustainability not because we’re environmentalists, but because we are capitalists and fiduciaries to our clients.”
“To ensure continuity of affordable energy supplies during the transition, traditional fossil fuels like natural gas will play an important role both for power generation and heating in certain regions, as well as for the production of hydrogen,” Mr Fink said.
He said that divesting from entire sectors — or simply passing carbon-intensive assets from public markets to private markets — will not get the world to net zero.
BlackRock is not divesting from oil and gas companies as a policy.
At the heart of Mr Fink’s 2022 letter to CEOs was capitalism, or stakeholder capitalism to be specific.
“Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics,” he said. “It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not woke. It is capitalism, driven by mutually beneficial relationships between you and the employees, customers, suppliers, and communities your company relies on to prosper. This is the power of capitalism.”
