RAISE A GLASS FOR JOHN LEWIS.

By contrast with most of its competitors, Britain's favourite retailer recently announced a brilliant year's trading. Half of its £252 million profit, up 10% on the previous year was distributed to its 60,000 partners, who were understandably happy. Nothing went to institutional investors, brokers or others in the financial markets, because John Lewis is owned by its staff.
Chairman Sir Stuart Hampson said; we believe the strength of our business is that it is owned by its partners. They are our visible shareholders. This is not a soft business that can go for a low rate of return because we're owned by our staff. We have a real responsibility to make sure their money gets a good return.
We in this website have a growing conviction that companies can not perform well in the medium or long term unless there is a real alignment of interests and values between owners, employees and customers. It is unfortunately almost impossible to achieve this in quoted companies as responsible long-term investment has become completely swamped by short-term speculation on share prices by institutional investors, Hedge Funds and derivative traders. As one FTSE 100 director recently said of to-day's capital markets; they push the share price up or down, making a turn on the difference. They don't care a toss about employees and they don't care about long-term sustainability.
The excellent long-term performance and growth of John Lewis should provide a lift to all who want to see responsible, caring capitalism - let's have more of them!
See: John Lewis, Business for the People, By the People