My heart leapt when I read the words “There is such a thing… as the national interest – and it is not measured by shareholder value alone” (Leader, 5 February). For decades, as the head of a quoted and later private company, I attempted to convey this to both the financial world and successive governments. Repeatedly, I reminded them that the other stakeholders in a company (customers, employees and suppliers), on all of whom the taxpayer and the state are ultimately dependent, should not be sacrificed on the false altar of shareholder value. Britain is fortunate that AstraZeneca was spun out of the ailing British juggernaut, Imperial Chemical Industries. But this is little comfort to those who have suffered through the neglect of the national interest. Trains, power stations and large commercial ships – all basic requirements of a developed maritime nation – are among the necessities no longer built in this country, and many of the skills essential to such activities have been irreplaceably lost.