ABSTRACT
One of the key lessons to emerge from our experience of corporate governance in recent years is the importance of time. Most major businesses have developed at a sustainable pace and have been nurtured by generations of patient custodians; a few have grown like mushrooms, often like Microsoft by monopolising an area of dynamic growth, or by aggressive acquisitions, like AIG. The recent economic collapse has destroyed businesses of all sorts but most dramatically those, like Lehman Brothers, which had expanded with little concern for risk. It is noticeable that companies with strategic and/or marketing focus, like Reckitt Benckiser, or with a well-maintained reputation, like Cadbury, have expanded their value despite the recession. Cadbury has now been taken over by Kraft Foods at a substantial premium to market value.
