Technological Changes During The American Industrial Revolution

The American Industrial Revolution brought about major technological changes to the corporate landscape of America. The changes garnered opportunities for large corporations to consolidate power and resources in their industry, which created monopolies. Standard Oil, US Steel, American Tobacco, and other large corporations amassed massive amounts of wealth for their owners. Other circumstances led to a similar consolidation of power in the banking industry under JP Morgan and Company, while other vital industries, like the railroads, saw huge booms in revenue and resources. These companies, while extreme examples, demonstrated the massive boom felt in the economy during this time period and helped to establish the initial concept of a large

PWC surveyed over 150 PE firms and found that ~70% believe that ESG management can help to create value. Along with this, they found that it has now become standard practice to consider ESG implications when analyzing a deal opportunity. Many of the firms did call out the troubling issues regarding the quantification of ESG activities and results, but in lieu of quantitative results, they actively published qualitative results when reporting their outcomes. This is interesting as it suggests that value may still be attainable even when the firm did not have tangible quantitative figures to share. The PE firms noted a variety of results, several of which were largely centered on the benefits of risk mitigation, competitive differentiation, and customer attraction. These notes show a very direct implication that PE firms are expecting to garner strong returns from ESG improvements in regards to their investments. Along with this, they also expect to be able to turn these ESG friendly businesses to large corporations once they hit an exit strategy, and there is a definite implication that ESG will benefit this. This belief is so strong that ~70% of PE respondents listed value creation as one of the main drivers for ESG activities being implemented, as well as noting regulation implications and

Following the departure from the monopolistic framework of the past and moving into today’s world of personified corporate entities, the expectations and requirements for corporations have changed drastically. The expectations have shifted away from being just financially focused and are now more societally focused as well. Society and investors have more actively placed ESG type values onto corporate entities as they have a much stronger opinion on the value degradation caused by unchecked capitalistic activity. And to be clear, this doesn’t go unnoticed by the companies themselves. As evidenced by the active engagements of companies such as Meta, Ford, or Disney, the entities are engaging and holding strong in these acquired values. They are reporting ESG activity very actively, taking strong stances in regards to the values, and making legitimate investments into new ESG initiatives. Financial performance is still the forefront of conversation, but companies are now understanding new investor and societal requirements for ESG values. On this note, ESG values are in many ways being leveraged as proponents to protect financial stability. The brand protection alone is a major driver for this activity, but as evidenced through previously mentioned research, there are even implications of value generation directly derived from utilizing ESG activities in the