We have come a long way. Sir David Walker in his report on the banks reflected this new emphasis on stewardship. The investors in the form of the Institutional Shareholders Committee, felt they had to respond. The Financial Reporting Council were handed the task of holding the investors to account.

 

People now accept stewardship is important and neglected. Now the task is to find practical ways of making it happen. In Tomorrow’s Company, we believe that will come from a combination of, better pension fund mandates, marketplace innovation by asset managers and investment consultants, and greater transparency stimulated by regulation.

That's what our new submission to the FRC says.

 

 

Our emotions range from the high of being taken care of in a place where we can explore and enjoy ourselves, to the low of feeling the hotel  is, for all its generous buffet meals, little more than a volcanic internment camp in need of a good escape committee. This is going to do terrible damage to the economy. byut might the lessons and the enforced adjustment be valuable?Where are others in the Tomorrow's Company volcanic diaspora  and what are their experiences?

So many questions arise from this takeover. Some of them are raised by Will Hutton and Philip Blond in today’s FT. But while Hutton and Blond (rightly) worry about the UK national interest, the outcome actually appears to make little sense in terms of the self interest of most of the people involved.

Even if you accept that the stock market should be left to get on with the business of creating long term shareholder value, here are questions that the major participants in that system need to answer.

They are all summarised in one key question: If we accept that an efficient capitalism needs effective stewardship, why are the implications of stewardship ignored in a takeover situation?