Financehome In the U.K. alone it is estimated that, directly and indirectly, three out of four adults are investors. They are indirect investors by virtue, for example, of being members of pension schemes, trade unions, building societies, unit trusts, banks, and insurance companies. The direct investors in the United Kingdom are those who themselves hold shares in companies or the government; these are now believed to number about 3,000,000 a number that is steadily growing. It is not fortuitous that the less austere as well as the more respectable Sunday newspapers in Great Britain now write informative pieces about the stock markets or that the B.B.G. devotes time to news of the Stock Exchange. The fact of this growth of shareholding (and the great success of the unit trust movement must be noted in this connexion) means that management can no longer pursue its private path. A takeover bid, the resignation of a chairman, the securing (or the loss) of a big international contract, the 'face of the firm' its advertising, its design policy, its delivery vans, etc. are all questions of increasing public interest not simply because they are newsworthy but because the small investor, no less than the larger one, is becoming directly and personally interested. Management for shareholders in the private sectors rests on the existence of a liberal, capitalistic society; shareholders' money is essential to the development plans of forward looking enterprises. It is only in the muddier fields of nationalized industries in Britain, coal, electricity, gas, the railways, and so on that the matter of managing in the shareholders' interests becomes a question of government policy. Management today may well be criticized for taking too little notice of shareholders. The shareholders are the sinews of business and, as such, deserve the closest attention. In the scramble to secure staff and labour under conditions of virtually full employment too many companies tend to think exclusively of, for example, employee welfare, while forgetting the equally pressing question of the welfare of the shareholders. This is especially true of the private sector but no less relevant where public ownership is concerned. Shareholders should be regarded as partners in business enterprise but how often does this happen and to what extent is it the fauk of shareholders themselves? Management, and especially boards of directors, tend to be oversecretive about their trading results and treat shareholders as if they were a necessary evil. This is particularly true in Great Britain : in the U.S.A. the situation is better and managements are far less inhibited in their quarterly, sixmonthly, and annual statements covering every aspect of the business. In Britain the average Annual General Meeting gives an impression of a direction anxious to get it over and done with as fast as possible and questions from shareholders are treated as if they were somehow in poor taste. to buy a house