interior Planning Similarly, and at the same time, management will account to the owners on the trading results. The feeling exists all too strongly in Britain that minimum disclosure in this respect is in the best interests of the company. The nonsensical idea that turnover figures will help a competitor still persists. Gradually this state of mind is changing and is being replaced by a full and detailed report of the company's trading. Increasingly, companies now include a tenyear record of their achievements, disclosing not only their overall sales but also the percentages of gross and net profit to their sales and the annual return on shareholders' funds. Much has been written about the morality of the takeover bid. It is not necessary to generalize as to the reasons which inspire those who organize takeovers; it is probably true to say that such reasons as personal profit, prestige, and power are at least contributory incentives. It is, however, interesting to reflect that, in fact, the takeover bid has a useful function towards the investing community, especially nowadays when a larger proportion of the population are in fact investors. The threat of these bids may sometimes prevent the directors of a company from pursuing a policy which does not give to the shareholders a reasonable return on their assets or aWasonable share of the profits. There have been, for example, many cases where the total remuneration of the directors has exceeded the total paid to shareholders or when physical assets such as properties are considerably undervalued. All in all it may be said that the expression 'takeover bid' has become something of a catch phrase which has grown up since the war and which is directly related to the undervaluation of a company's assets. The management of finance need not be as esoteric a subject as one might assume. To illustrate some respects of it a homely and entirely imaginary case history now follows. Imagine a quite fictional Bill Smith who runs a village garage. He is successful and he decides to expand into making car trailers. He has a son, Charlie, who is a good hand as a smith and a joiner, and another son, Les, who has all the exuberance required by a salesman. The daughter Mary deals with the correspondence. The purse strings are as always looked after by Mrs Smith. Smith has a little money laid by and he uses it to buy the materials needed to make a few trailers and the family get so wrapped up in the enterprise that they put all their money into these materials. Soon there is more work than he can do and an additional man to help him has to be taken on. They find themselves, however, without enough money to complete all their trailers and sell them. Capital has, in fact, been committed too deeply without the target being able to be completed. Fortunately, however, the local squire and the doctor have faith in Smith and they put up some money. At first they are sleeping partners, but to regularize the position it is decided to form a company. interior Planning