If you were an entrepreneur 30 years ago, when I was starting my career, listing your business on the London Stock Exchange was often the pinnacle of success. It provided your company with access to capital, an attractive incentivisation mechanism and prestige amongst your peers. Jump forward to today and life as a public company chief executive is very different. Decades of poor legislation and taxation changes – most notably taxes on dividends and MiFID 2, which has blighted the research industry – combined with an ever-increasing disclosure burden, not to mention material and continuing flows of capital away from UK equities, have made listing on the stock market far less desirable. A large part of a public chief executive’s time is spent not running their business but instead managing public market requirements. Your ability to invest in new operations and activities is often constrained by the need to meet market forecasts, as the consequence of missing targets can be catastrophic for share prices. Your ability to use your listed equity as currency for an acquisition is also far less attractive and valuable nowadays. As an incentivisation tool, similarly, your equity is less compelling to you and your employees. Over...