The role of shareholders
Recommend on Google+
How does ownership affect the running of a business. The Bottom Line this week looked at the relationships between senior managers of businesses and the shareholders who own the companies they run. The guests on the programme included Sophi Tranchell Managing Director of Divine Chocolate who is speaking at our Business Conference at the British Library in July.
45 per cent of Divine Chocloate is owned by cocoa growers in Ghana, the idea was first created by the success of the Cafe Direct model. There is one board meeting in Ghana each year along with three in the UK. Most of the cocoa farmers have never tasted chocolate! When people in the supply chain are part owners of a business, continuing to sell rising volumes of the product is the most important incentive, there is little pressure on the business to diversify.
Gavin Slark CEO of BSS has a different ownership structure with Schroders the dominant institutional investor and the programme also includes contributions from Andrew Tinkler CEO of the legendary road haulage business Eddie Stobart. Evan Davis quizzes his guests as to whether investors really understand their businesses. Are managers servants of the shareholders or educators?
The Bottom Line is always available as a weekly download from iTunes and previous programmes are archived on the BBC web site.
blog comments powered by Disqus
Unit 3 Micro: Impulses to Change Management Models [5 Nov 2011]
A2 Micro: Ownership and Control in Modern Businesses [18 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Diseconomies of Scale [18 May 2011]
Management lessons from the War in Iraq [30 Apr 2011]
Never Mind Plan B - Plan V needed for the UK Economy! [17 Feb 2011]
Where good ideas come from [12 Aug 2010]
Wall Street Partnerships and Principal Agent Problem [12 Oct 2009]
How to start the next Google or Facebook [28 Sep 2009]
Q&A: What is the productivity gap? [1 Jun 2009]
Owners v Managers and the Principle Agent Problem [24 May 2009]
A fresh burst of shareholder activism [14 May 2009]
Managerial casualties and frictional unemployment [15 Jan 2009]
A new management paradigm - conserve cash [11 Jan 2009]
Luke Johnson on ownership and control [17 Oct 2008]
Hedge trimming [15 Oct 2008]
Not just for profit - a new breed of social entrepreneur [7 Oct 2008]
Financial collapse and the principal agent problem [29 Sep 2008]
Rentokil falls into profits trap [24 Aug 2008]
Cycling on a roll - competitive advantage in action [21 Aug 2008]
A new era of investor activism? [1 Aug 2008]
Oxbridge E&M - Management Blogs [24 Jun 2008]
Canny pricing in a slowdown [16 May 2008]
Revision: Stakeholders [19 Apr 2008]
Revision: Ownership and Control [30 Mar 2008]
Government failure and the Rock [26 Mar 2008]
ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER
Join over 6,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u regular Economics Resource Email Newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops + loads of great ideas for teaching economics from our blog authors.
