Response to AFR BOSS article
Business leaders with a long-term strategy that doesn't neatly fit the short-term paradigm of the financial markets know well Niccolo Machiavelli's advice that: "there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct ... than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things".
To highlight the challenges of creating 'a new order of things', Anne Hyland's article on ANZ in this month's BOSS magazine demonstrates how easy it is for some commentators to also prefer short term strategies and the old order of things. A more balanced assessment and better research would suggest otherwise.
Banks in OECD countries including Australia are now managing in a low growth environment for the foreseeable future. Credit growth in Australia was 3.10/0 in the year to June 2013 and just 2.5% in the March 2013 quarter. While there are great businesses and great opportunities in Australia, ANZ is also building a business in Asia and connected to Asia where economic growth (ex-Japan) is 6.5% - more than twice the current level of domestic economic growth.
This makes the logic for ANZ's super regional strategy compelling and most Australian analysts and institutional investors support this.