Hi Karen, Thanks for posting this FT article. For some strange reason I entirely overlooked this (in the Week-end Review section) in the batch of papers that came on Saturday. (I usually snatch this first 'cos this section has the book reviews.)
On Sunday, February 23, 2003 3:00 PM you wrote: <<<< This article was written for and appeared in the Financial Times. I hope that any FW feedback would tell me more about if the authors were eggheads with no clear purpose or whether the FWers who post to this subject thought the content had merit. >>>> I thought the article had merit but wobbled about very unconvincingly at the end because it left me with no evidence that we can continue to trust the business company as, say, most did before the great stock market shambles of the last two years (from which most won't recover for at least five years as they attempt to patch up their pension funds). If companies are "worthy", but "boring" how can they have swindled tens of millions of workers and pensioners of their expected (and fully paid for) pensions? Authors John Micklethwait and Adrian Woolridge, although usually writing anonymously in the pages of the Economist, are sufficiently well-known in other publications and have good reputations. About one third through, the article mentions what was probably the most important and revolutionary innovation of the 19th century industrial revolution in England, and this was the institution of the limited stock company and the various regulations imposed on them by Parliament. Among the requirements are that share ownerships should be kept up to date, and that company constitutions, objectives, resolutions and annual accounts should be on public view. If consumer and shareholder credibility is to be retained, I think that the time has now come for public disclosure to be taken a great deal further. Now that almost all important communications within and between companies are electronic and able to be recorded cheaply, I see absolutely no reason why this should not be a requirement of any company that does, in fact, produce goods or services for the general public. Keith ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
