● I had planned to nominate my “business villains of 2023”, but the “list of rogues and cheats and chancers is a rich seam” (see page 27) and space is limited, says Patrick Hosking in The Times. So let’s cheer some, the new boss at Rolls-Royce, who arrived promising a more disciplined approach to capital and costs, and to “stamp hard” on the urge to build market share at the expense of profits. Twelve months on, the shares have tripled. Another “champion of shareholder value” is, the CEO of 3i, the most successful UK investment trust this year. His “gigantic bet” on Action, a retail chain, paid off 100-fold. , the CEO of Novo Nordisk, has seen his firm become the biggest in Europe on the back of its potential blockbuster obesity drugs. Finally,, the “hands-on” chairman of M&S, “deserves kudos” for turning the chain around. The shares doubled in a year and are paying dividends again.
