I own my umbrella
We talk about companies being 'owned' by their shareholders. But what does 'ownership' really mean? In this talk John highlights fundamental differences to ownership of a very different kind - that of an umbrella!
A fair trade in governance
The management and governance of LIFFE is not an easy job. Exchanges are natural monopolies, and provide benefits which are valuable only in what they make possible.
The Role of Business in Society
The view of business as necessarily selfish, narrow and instrumental, is, as it always has been, nonsense. Business which is selfish in motivation, narrow in outlook, and instrumental in behaviour is rarely successful business.
A Stakeholding Society – What Does it Mean for Business?
There is a clear distinction between businesses whose characteristic is to develop a professional service in order to serve all its stakeholders and businesses whose focus is mainly to maximise shareholder return. Which is likely to be more successful?
Test of possession
“Ownership” is not a simple concept. I own my umbrella, and companies are owned by their shareholders. The word means different things in different situations.
Passes and returns
Dalglish arrives at Newcastle and Horlick moves to ABN Amro. The common theme: do teams, or individuals, capture the returns to outstanding performance?
Investment quality
Does it matter if all of Britain's electricity generating companies are owned by Americans? Neither laissez-faire nor chauvinism is the appropriate response to foreign ownership.
Now mind the gap
The Bank of England should get on with the job of setting interest rates and other monetary activities, and be held accountable for how well it performs. Instead, everyone wants to retain control over decisions while shedding responsibility for outcomes.
Why piece work went out of fashion
Piece rates are out of fashion but incentive contracts for top executives are in. Perhaps we will soon discover that the problems caused by piece rates also dog share option schemes.
Down-payment required to curb bid fever
We would be better off if executives involved spent more time minding the store, rather than negotiating to buy each other's stores - so here is a proposal to put sand in the wheels of the takeover machine.