Effective investor collaboration is crucial for achieving meaningful outcomes in ESG engagements and initiatives. Clear leadership with appropriate relationships, skills, and knowledge is a key characteristic of successful investor collaboration.

1. Clear Leadership: Having clear leadership ensures that the collaboration is well-coordinated and directed towards common goals. Leaders with the right relationships, skills, and knowledge can navigate complex stakeholder environments, build consensus, and drive the collaboration forward.

2. Engagement Approach (Option A): While having an engagement approach that is bespoke to the target company is important, it is more specific to individual engagements rather than a general characteristic of investor collaboration success.

3. Objectives Linked to Strategic Issues (Option C): Objectives that are linked to material strategic and governance issues are important for the focus and relevance of the collaboration. However, clear leadership is fundamental to ensuring that these objectives are effectively pursued and achieved.

References from CFA ESG Investing:

Investor Collaboration: The CFA Institute discusses the importance of leadership in investor collaboration, highlighting that successful collaborations often depend on leaders who can leverage their expertise and relationships to achieve common goals.

Characteristics of Successful Collaborations: Understanding the critical success factors, such as clear leadership, helps investors design and participate in effective collaborative initiatives that can drive positive ESG outcomes.

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