
Boardroom Sensemaker
Sex education
At the end of next month John Allan will step down early as chair of Barratt Developments even though no complaints about his behaviour have been reported in nine years at the company.
Boardroom Sensemaker
At the end of next month John Allan will step down early as chair of Barratt Developments even though no complaints about his behaviour have been reported in nine years at the company.
Boardroom Sensemaker
Share buybacks are transforming the relationship between investors and companies, and not necessarily in a good way.
Boardroom Sensemaker
Nearly seven in ten FTSE 100 firms provide some form of private healthcare for employees. Is it the responsible choice?
Sensemaker Audio
A court has ruled that the British musician did not copy a Marvin Gaye song when he wrote the 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud. What does the verdict mean for the music industry?
Boardroom Sensemaker
Hindenburg Research, the New York short-seller, is on the hunt again after it targeted India’s Adani Group. Its target this time is an activist too.
Boardroom Sensemaker
The food industry isn’t used to thinking of itself as a “sin industry”. But these are not easy times for companies whose business is built around snacks and convenience foods.
Boardroom Sensemaker
Rupert Murdoch is one of a substantial group of ageing business patriarchs who may not be as indispensable as they and their board directors seem to think.
Boardroom Sensemaker
The CBI, Britain’s leading business lobby group, is supposed to set an example on issues of governance and purpose. It’s now facing a crisis.
Boardroom Sensemaker
Jamie Dimon, America’s most powerful banker, is due to be interviewed under oath about JPMorgan Chase’s relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It’s a lesson in corporate due diligence.
Sensemaker Audio
A court has ruled that the British musician did not copy a Marvin Gaye song when he wrote the 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud. What does the verdict mean for the music industry?
Sensemaker Audio
How a small investment firm is taking on one of the world’s richest men
Editor’s Voicemail
Rejoining the EU is not on the UK’s political agenda. Here’s why it should be.
Sensemaker Audio
Bob Iger has returned as CEO of Disney two years after stepping down. What does his comeback tell us about the challenges for Disney and other streaming services?
Sensemaker Audio
The game’s greatest player has accused his opponent of cheating, throwing the world of chess into turmoil. What does it mean for its future?
Sensemaker Audio
There have been reports that some hedge-fund bosses made huge profits by betting that the pound would fall. They did it by shorting the market. How does it work?
Sensemaker Audio
After a failed IPO and multi-billion dollar losses, the founder of WeWork left the company in disgrace in 2019. But Adam Neumann is back in business with a real estate startup. So who’s betting on his latest venture?
thinkin
Long stories short Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said Labour was willing to force pension plans to invest in a £50 billion “growth fund”.Tom Blomfield, the founder of Monzo, has left London for San Francisco after saying the “listing problem is very real.”Nvidia is set to become the first semiconductor company with a trillion dollar valuation (more below). Sex education At the end of next month John Allan will step down early as chair of Barratt Developments even though no complaints about his behaviour have been reported in nine years at the company. He’s also standing down after eight years as chair of Tesco, where he asked the company to investigate his record. It made “no findings of wrongdoing”. So what? Neither company has had the last word. Allan’s abrupt removal from the heights of British industry has revealed a blank space where boards need clear guidelines;a failure by one of the UK’s biggest business to explain itself on a vital question of leadership and culture; anda system for dealing with claims of sexual misconduct that serves neither victims, whistleblowers nor the accused. Why? From 2018 to 2020 Allan was also president of the CBI, where multiple allegations of serious sexual misconduct by senior staff were made on his watch, including one of rape. Allan himself has since been the subject of claims of inappropriate behaviour from four women between 2019 and 2022. He “vehemently” denies three of them, two of which involved allegedly touching or grabbing colleagues’ bottoms. He admits the fourth, which concerned telling a colleague her dress suited her figure. Allan says he was “mortified” after making the remark and apologised for it – but reports say he did so only after being challenged on it by Carolyn Fairbairn, the then CBI director-general, who considered it “wholly inappropriate, demeaning and objectifying”. Another former CBI employee described Allan to a Times reporter as a “known dinosaur”. So there is a case that he presided over a culture of misogyny, was blind to it and part of it. But the case has not been made. Instead… Barratt, Britain’s biggest housebuilder, said on Tuesday Allan was leaving early to prevent the impact of the allegations against him “becoming disruptive to the Company”. Asked yesterday what process was followed bringing forward his departure, Barratt wouldn’t comment. Tesco said Allan was stepping down to avoid becoming a “distraction” even though an “extensive review” of his record turned up “no complaints or concerns, formally or informally”.The four women’s complaints have been detailed in a Guardian investigation of sexual misconduct at the CBI, where separate cases have been referred to police, none involving Allan. The senior independent directors at both companies – Jock Lennox at Barratt and Byron Grote at Tesco – have thanked him for his service. There has been no process, due or otherwise; no justice done or seen to be done. Employees see accusations rebuffed with denials but not resolved. Four in ten women report experiencing workplace harassment, according to research by the Fawcett Society. “It is clearly in the best interest of every organisation, regardless of size, public or private, to treat any accusations of sexual harassment with utmost seriousness,” says Ann Francke, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute. Boards see a landscape in which they may be expected to sack a chair or CEO on the basis of unproven allegations because media pressure demands nothing less once they have been aired; because that can have a material impact on a company’s market value; and because with no rules of engagement there is no room for compromise. The Institute of Directors has been pushing since last June for the introduction of a code of conduct for directors that would establish such rules, but admits there are none at present. Boards in cases like Allan’s are left with a legal duty to protect the best interests of the company, to discharge as they see fit. A former FTSE 100 CEO said yesterday it was sad to see due process trumped by media noise. Yes, but. Media noise is a given, especially in the UK. (A group of Danish journalists visiting Tortoise this week said Britain had the best journalists and the worst press in the world. We’ll take that… on the chin.) The challenge for boards waking up to scandals and alleged scandals involving their own members is to deal with the noise but also do the right thing by accusers and accused. In egregious cases the law takes over. The rest of the time, clarity from the company is paramount, on process and in its communications. Barratt flunked the Allan test on both counts. Also, in the nibs A new book says boards need to be more democratic Patagonia is one of the few things that has US bipartisan support Aviva picks up private healthcare patients frustrated with the NHS Nvidia joins the club of trillion dollar valuations Banks stocks have become the new meme stocks Thanks for reading. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at sensemaker@tortoisemedia.com.
thinkin
Long stories short Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said Labour was willing to force pension plans to invest in a £50 billion “growth fund”.Tom Blomfield, the founder of Monzo, has left London for San Francisco after saying the “listing problem is very real.”Nvidia is set to become the first semiconductor company with a trillion dollar valuation (more below). Sex education At the end of next month John Allan will step down early as chair of Barratt Developments even though no complaints about his behaviour have been reported in nine years at the company. He’s also standing down after eight years as chair of Tesco, where he asked the company to investigate his record. It made “no findings of wrongdoing”. So what? Neither company has had the last word. Allan’s abrupt removal from the heights of British industry has revealed a blank space where boards need clear guidelines;a failure by one of the UK’s biggest business to explain itself on a vital question of leadership and culture; anda system for dealing with claims of sexual misconduct that serves neither victims, whistleblowers nor the accused. Why? From 2018 to 2020 Allan was also president of the CBI, where multiple allegations of serious sexual misconduct by senior staff were made on his watch, including one of rape. Allan himself has since been the subject of claims of inappropriate behaviour from four women between 2019 and 2022. He “vehemently” denies three of them, two of which involved allegedly touching or grabbing colleagues’ bottoms. He admits the fourth, which concerned telling a colleague her dress suited her figure. Allan says he was “mortified” after making the remark and apologised for it – but reports say he did so only after being challenged on it by Carolyn Fairbairn, the then CBI director-general, who considered it “wholly inappropriate, demeaning and objectifying”. Another former CBI employee described Allan to a Times reporter as a “known dinosaur”. So there is a case that he presided over a culture of misogyny, was blind to it and part of it. But the case has not been made. Instead… Barratt, Britain’s biggest housebuilder, said on Tuesday Allan was leaving early to prevent the impact of the allegations against him “becoming disruptive to the Company”. Asked yesterday what process was followed bringing forward his departure, Barratt wouldn’t comment. Tesco said Allan was stepping down to avoid becoming a “distraction” even though an “extensive review” of his record turned up “no complaints or concerns, formally or informally”.The four women’s complaints have been detailed in a Guardian investigation of sexual misconduct at the CBI, where separate cases have been referred to police, none involving Allan. The senior independent directors at both companies – Jock Lennox at Barratt and Byron Grote at Tesco – have thanked him for his service. There has been no process, due or otherwise; no justice done or seen to be done. Employees see accusations rebuffed with denials but not resolved. Four in ten women report experiencing workplace harassment, according to research by the Fawcett Society. “It is clearly in the best interest of every organisation, regardless of size, public or private, to treat any accusations of sexual harassment with utmost seriousness,” says Ann Francke, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute. Boards see a landscape in which they may be expected to sack a chair or CEO on the basis of unproven allegations because media pressure demands nothing less once they have been aired; because that can have a material impact on a company’s market value; and because with no rules of engagement there is no room for compromise. The Institute of Directors has been pushing since last June for the introduction of a code of conduct for directors that would establish such rules, but admits there are none at present. Boards in cases like Allan’s are left with a legal duty to protect the best interests of the company, to discharge as they see fit. A former FTSE 100 CEO said yesterday it was sad to see due process trumped by media noise. Yes, but. Media noise is a given, especially in the UK. (A group of Danish journalists visiting Tortoise this week said Britain had the best journalists and the worst press in the world. We’ll take that… on the chin.) The challenge for boards waking up to scandals and alleged scandals involving their own members is to deal with the noise but also do the right thing by accusers and accused. In egregious cases the law takes over. The rest of the time, clarity from the company is paramount, on process and in its communications. Barratt flunked the Allan test on both counts. Also, in the nibs A new book says boards need to be more democratic Patagonia is one of the few things that has US bipartisan support Aviva picks up private healthcare patients frustrated with the NHS Nvidia joins the club of trillion dollar valuations Banks stocks have become the new meme stocks Thanks for reading. If you want to get in touch, drop us a line at sensemaker@tortoisemedia.com.
Boardroom Sensemaker
At the end of next month John Allan will step down early as chair of Barratt Developments even though no complaints about his behaviour have been reported in nine years at the company.
Boardroom Sensemaker
Share buybacks are transforming the relationship between investors and companies, and not necessarily in a good way.
Boardroom Sensemaker
Nearly seven in ten FTSE 100 firms provide some form of private healthcare for employees. Is it the responsible choice?
Boardroom Sensemaker
Hindenburg Research, the New York short-seller, is on the hunt again after it targeted India’s Adani Group. Its target this time is an activist too.
Boardroom Sensemaker
The food industry isn’t used to thinking of itself as a “sin industry”. But these are not easy times for companies whose business is built around snacks and convenience foods.
Boardroom Sensemaker
Rupert Murdoch is one of a substantial group of ageing business patriarchs who may not be as indispensable as they and their board directors seem to think.
Boardroom Sensemaker
The CBI, Britain’s leading business lobby group, is supposed to set an example on issues of governance and purpose. It’s now facing a crisis.
Boardroom Sensemaker
Jamie Dimon, America’s most powerful banker, is due to be interviewed under oath about JPMorgan Chase’s relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It’s a lesson in corporate due diligence.
Sensemaker
What just happened