My colleague Francesco Guerrera pulled off a wonderful scoop the other day when he asked Jack Welch, former chief executive of GE, for his views on how business leaders should be running their companies in these chaotic times.
“On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world,” he declared to a stunned world.
In recent days Mr Welch has tried to finesse his position a little, but he has not withdrawn the orginal comment.
What do you make of it?
Stefan Stern writes a column on Tuesdays on management. He is winner of the 2010 Towers Watson award for excellence in HR journalism, and has previously won awards from the Work Foundation and the Management Consultancies Association.
Ravi Mattu is the editor of Business Life, the FT's management features
section, and a former editor of the Mastering Management series. He joined the FT in 2000 from Prospect magazine
Lucy Kellaway writes a column on Mondays on work , poking fun at management fads and jargon and celebrating the ups and downs of office life. She is also the FT's Agony Aunt.
Luke Johnson writes an FT column on Wednesdays on entrepreneurship. He runs Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm, and is chairman of the Royal Society of Arts.
Lucy Kellaway, FT columnist and associate editor, offers her solution to your workplace problems in a column in the Financial Times. In the online edition of her Dear Lucy 'agony aunt' column, readers are invited to have a say too.
