John Hunter is the chairman of the UK Shareholders’ Association.
It encourages teamwork and all the benefits that brings – particularly in large organisations where the bottom can seem remote from the top – by providing a single measure of achievement to which the whole organisation can relate.
That applies to all except those who can directly influence the measure in the short term – i.e. the directors and senior investor relations staff and a few very senior managers. In them it encourages short-termism and the pursuit of eye-catching deals at the expense of sound investment (of both time and money) in long-term success; unless the plan is particularly well designed.
No easy answers. Publicise the successes, learn from the failures, share knowledge and experience.
Because the benefits of ESOPs are independent of party dogma.
The help and friendship of those I meet through it.
If I could identify it, it wouldn’t be perfect. My moments of perfect happiness have always been unexpected and usually involved some combination of family, friends and place.
Equanimity.
Outside of family matters, blundering through life without any of the ‘goals’ that are deemed important for ‘success’ but feeling successful for all that.
Richard Feynman – as original as Einstein and much more fun. Samuel Pepys a close second.
My wife.
Boye Brogeland (who exposed a number of top bridge players as cheats and put his own career at risk to do so), Nassim Nicholas Taleb (‘Fooled by Randomness’), Anselm Kiefer.
On the other hand…
My house.