It is a truth universally acknowledged that diverse companies perform better. The evidence is apparently so irrefutable that one FTSE 350 chair raged that ‘There have been enough reports… statistics and… evidence-based research to stop talking about it and get on with it.’ Another viewed the evidence that diversity trumps any other attribute as so ironclad that he tells executive search firms, ‘I don’t want to see any men. I don’t care if they’re Jesus Christ. I don’t want to see them.’ Similar statements are made about the supposedly cast-iron link between ESG and firm performance

In this talk, Sacred Cows' inaugural event, Professor Alex Edmans explains how the evidence for both is much weaker than often touted, and is rife with examples of reverse causation, inadequate controls, cherrypicking of data, and confirmation bias. Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. His book May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About It (Penguin Random House) is out on the 25th April.

Sacred Cows is a new series of talks in London dedicated to investigating the evidence behind contemporary ideas that can seem immune from criticism. Subscribe to our channel for future talks, and see our channel page for links to our mailing list and twitter.