A company's journey to becoming a "marathon runner" is often driven by its unique strengths rather than its sector or region. Comgest's analysts identify the distinguishing factors of marathon runners through extensive research. In this paper, Wolfgang Fickus, Product Specialist for Europe Equities, explains how companies with traits like strong free cash generation, smart capital allocation, diversification, global reach, crisis resilience, and a unique corporate culture can achieve marathon runner status and sustain growth for generations.

Although ageing is a fact of life for people, some quality companies have spanned decades, if not centuries, and remain in their prime — or even stronger. Comgest's Wolfgang Fickus highlights Lindy's Law, which explains why these "marathon runners" get better with age, and why they're the bedrock for the compounding benefit captured in our quality growth portfolios.

Are diversity and inclusion (D&I) simply buzzwords? What does it mean to be a “diverse” asset manager? How is D&I relevant for investors? Is it possible to produce both an authentic positive impact and return?

The ultimate litmus test for any portfolio risk management is a crisis. If the industry's standard risk tools fail, what’s left? Is it even possible for a portfolio manager to get a grip on risk?

People have been making horrible predictions about change for as long as people have been making predictions. For investors and markets this is extremely important, because stock prices reflect a set of beliefs about future events, discounted back to the present. If we can’t predict the Next Big Thing, how can we know where to invest?

What is quality at its core? What ESG methods are there to measure it? Is “quality" simply in the eyes of the beholder?