Waiting for Godot

Dick Elsy outlines leadership qualities required to make innovation work. But work for whom?

Dick Elsy (PE March 2011) outlines leadership qualities required to make innovation work. But work for whom?

Employees, including directors, receive their return immediately, through wages, salaries and share options. 

But shareholders stand at the end of the line, especially when any company goes into administration. That is the risk they take.

Torotrak has yet to deliver a shareholder return. The latest available annual report shows Torotrak’s share price, as a percentage of the benchmark FTSE techMark, on a steady and significant decline since April 2005.

As an innovator, Torotrak has irons in many fires, each of which ‘could’ deliver, but as of yet none has given the lasting return that early investors might have expected from inventive minds.

Some shareholders, and investors, may wonder how much longer they have to wait for their return.

John Mortimer, Milton Keynes

Next letter: Engineering Graduates