How should companies be organized? To whom should boards of directors be responsible - shareholders, or a wider group of stakeholders? In this fiercely competitive world we cannot judge our own system of corporate governance in isolation; it must bear comparison with the best. This acclaimed book aims to do just that. The author describes in turn the system of corporate governance - both the business environment and the particular structures of company organization - in five major industrial countries: Germany, Japan, France, the USA, and the UK.