Senior executives, big fund managers and asset consultants have a problem: they know that too much money is concentrated in too few companies. They have seen the effects of this in bad news stories like Woolworths, Myer and even Fairfax, the publisher of BOSS. They are fearful that it will ultimately hit the Australian banks. The problem is short-termism.

The question isn't whether it exists (it does), or even why it is such a company-killer (it is) but why it is so embedded in corporations in Australia, and around the world, and how it will damage many investment portfolios in the coming years.