The narrative in annual reports must demonstrate a confident leadership with a clear sense of strategic direction, or companies will remain at the mercy of stock market volatility. By Ian McDonald Wood

As a young man with a small bequest to invest I asked my father how to choose a stockbroker. “A good stockbroker,” he said, “is one who always has the inside track on what is a good investment.” In the intervening period, this concept of ‘insider trading’ based on special knowledge has shifted from the norm, through to being questionable and on to being totally unacceptable morally and legally.

“If the corporate world does not coalesce around a method to assess future performance of companies, we will become hostages to increased volatility in stock markets.”

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