Since the start of the month we’ve seen several supplier CEOs resigning: Chapel Down boss Andrew Carter; Lipton Teas & Infusions CEO Nathalie Roos; and Campari CEO Matteo Fantacchiotti.
This week came two resignations on the retail side. The big news in grocery was Mohsin Issa’s departure from Asda. And what a humbling experience for the owner-manager, to be booted out of the bootroom, by the chairman he appointed.
Of course, Issa is not actually the CEO. Not officially. And it’s a moot point: for over three years, in his executive leadership role, headhunters have failed to find a CEO willing to take a brief (or his Sunday morning calls), as Issa’s notorious man management style and hands-on approach preceded him.
Even after the appointment of Stuart Rose, the courteous and highly professional ex-M&S boss, as the aforementioned Asda chairman, it seems no amount of money could persuade someone to join. Some will say it was (and is) an impossible job given the millstone of debt it’s been encumbered with, and the strength of the competition, and the additional challenge of decoupling its systems from Walmart, but the similarly leveraged Morrisons is faring significantly better, and it’s significant that it hasn’t faced the same difficulty in recruiting a CEO, with its private equity owners CD&R attracting highly rated Carrefour boss Rami Baitiéh to move to Bradford, and has benefited as a result from his experience.
The other big retail news surrounds Nick Read’s resignation as CEO of the Post Office. And it’s been a similarly bruising experience. No doubt the ex-Tesco and ex-Nisa boss has been a whipping boy, grilled extensively in the lengthy Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, despite not being there at the time.
But like Asda, the Post Office is not a happy ship. And far from turning it around, under Read, it’s still docked in a hostile port. He was tasked with modernising the Post Office. But it was impossible to move on till justice was done, and Read underestimated how important his role in that was. It’s not enough to say you’re sorry. No matter how many times you say it. And while there were other measures he introduced, it’s simply taken too long for the compensation to be paid out and Read has not done enough personally to facilitate progress.
Ahead of the Inquiry’s seventh and final phase, which kicks off next week, new chair Sir Wyn Williams commissioned two surveys to understand how current postmasters and those who applied for compensation under the Horizon Shortfall Scheme feel about the situation. The results will be published next week. Perhaps Read has read the future.
No comments yet