It can’t only be for the peerage. Why would any businessman put himself forward to help a political party or government?
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Tesco Plc (LON:TSCO) has had only three chief executives in 50 years – all promoted from within. Compared with the public squabbles at the top of its rivals, the supermarket group is a lesson in succession planning.
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Was your journey really necessary? Probably not, now that the Europeanwide flying ban has become the latest transport problem to prevent businessmen travelling. Grounding the continent’s executives is a good reminder than commerce can be conducted electronically quite efficiently.
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With big business in bad odour, asking directors to stand for re-election every year might look like improved accountability. But suddenly companies have worked out that it could mean the whole board being removed at one shareholders’ meeting leaving the businesses without bosses.
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As aliens go, Bart Becht looks pretty human, even if his £93m reward for running Reckitt Benckiser looks astronomical. But if Barclays’ Bob Diamond was denounced as the “unacceptable face of banking” for allegedly receiving £63m, what is Becht?
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Is there any point shareholders voting on companies’ remuneration reports? By the time they reject the boardroom pay the directors have already pocketed the proceeds and there is nothing to stop the company behaving as badly again next year.
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If the Treasury is worried about companies going overseas perhaps it should stop looking at corporation tax rates and concentrate on income taxes. It is the 50p top rate on pay that is now making firms look abroad.
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Setting quotas to increase the number of female managers at Deutsche Telekom has upset only one group more than the men who dominate its management – the women who hold one senior job in eight. Having qualified on merit they resent their sisters being given a free lift to the top.
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How appropriate that the terms of Marc Bolland’s recruitment to Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) were announced on the last day of the football transfer window.  M&S is paying a £7.5m fee to attract him from rival retailer Wm Morrison (LON:MRW).
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So now we know the price of principles. Less than 10 per cent. For an extra  £1bn from Kraft Foods, Cadbury’s (LON:CBRY) directors have melted like Dairy Milk on a warm day and crumbled like a Flake bar.
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