John Kay

John returns to his experience as a Halifax director to retrace the rocky road to last week’s rescue takeover.

European companies are increasingly imitating US ones in the cult and remuneration of chief executives. Political organisation may evolve similarly as party membership declines and ideology fades.

The chicken game, which frequently ends in tragedy or folly, is a game for movie-going teenagers, not grown-ups.

The imperative requirement is for processes that both require and allow elected politicians to make choices and implement them.

Farewell to ICI, Britain’s leading industrial company for most of the 20th century. As a national institution, ICI nurtured some of Britain’s best management talent and developed the skills and knowledge behind the country’s most successful postwar industry.

When pressure for brand extension of products and geography is continuous, and the service must be delivered by local partners, it is hard to maintain the brand as a means of quality control.

There are two methods of allocating property rights: Top down – by the dictates of a central administration – or bottom up – rights to land are acquired by working it.

An effective business strategy is not separable from execution and is not based on visions and dreams, but on a match between capabilities and activities.

Private equity promoters propose layer upon layer of debt, leveraged by non-recourse finance. But the same finance theory also tells us that you do not increase the value of an investment portfolio by increasing gearing.

If pension funds could buy electricity bonds based on the future stream of electricity generation at fixed prices, then in thirty years elderly Europeans would not have to worry about lighting their homes and watching television.