CITY AND SUBURBAN
Those heady days on Lloyd's heavenly floor don't pass the Jefferson test
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, believed that any candidate Who wanted the job should be disqualified from holding it. I would apply that rule to the chairmanship of Lloyd's of London. Its Powers of seduction are too strong. An agreeable chap makes a play for the chair because he thinks (or his wife thinks) that It would be a good thing to have done, and a k. nighthood has been known to come with It. Then he is wafted up in the lift to the chairman's floor, which is like heaven, except that all revolves round him. Below, at a great distance through a glass wall, he can see the market's workaday world. Up here, all is calm. Massive furnishings soothe the nerves, mighty trophies bear witness to Lloyd's past. Deferential waiters in blue and red liveries map out the day: 'The Japanese delegation, chairman. Then the man who is painting your portrait. Then the programme for your visit to China. Then You are presenting a Lloyd's silver medal. This evening you are addressing the Man- si.on House dinner. Your speech is in your in-tray for your approval. White tie and decorations, chairman. Your car is at the door.' Heady stuff. Chairmen can get car- ried away by it. They identify themselves with the grandeur of the institution, they are reluctant to believe that the wheels may be coming off, and no courtier in that monarchy will be specially eager to say so. Sir Jeremy Morse has now said so. His find- ings are as I thought, writing here a fort- night ago: 'A signal in Morse that Lloyd's of London must change from the top.'
Man of business ...
WHAT Lloyd's needs most, Sir Jeremy says, is much stronger business leadership, through the crisis and beyond it. That means a market board to drive the busi- ness, and a new chief executive who must be first and foremost a businessman, and a Chairman to serve for fixed terms of three Years at a time, substantially full-time, and be paid accordingly. David Coleridge, Lloyd's present (unpaid) chairman, certain passes the Jefferson test, but the new regime is meant to start with the new year, and where is his successor to be found? Lloyd's members have been hankering for abusinessman from outside, like (they say airily) Sir John Harvey-Jones or Sir Owen Green — two chairmen sufficiently unlike each other. Do not bet on either. Lloyd's own stately Act of Parliament must in prac- tice mean that the chairman will come from the market. Lloyd's has got so far on the path of reform by following the map drawn (at Mr Coleridge's request) by David Row- land, chairman of Sedgwick. To me, the man who knows the way looks the man to lead the party. He, too, would pass the Jef- ferson test.
... regular guy
THE MORSE code would put Lloyd's reg- ulation under a board of its own, chaired by a 'nominated' member of the Council. Sir David Walker is one, he has just handed over the chairman of the Securities and Investments Board, he was the scrutineer chosen to check Lloyd's stricken syndicates for fraud. (What he found was almost worse — ineptness.) The new job must have Sir David's name written all over it. I still expect some future chairman of Lloyd's to make a deal with government, giving up the pleasures of self-regulation in exchange for something useful, like a tax-break. Now that would mean business.
Up in the air
SOME questions in economics are easy, some are difficult, the question about the European Fighter Aircraft has become markedly easier. If the Germans don't think they can afford it, what makes us think that we could? I can add that the Germans had an advantage in making up their minds — they knew what the competi- tion had to offer. One of the odder conse- quences of reunification is that the eastern branch of the German air force has come equipped with Russian-built Migs. Pilots from the western branch, having tried them out, say that they are a great improvement on the standard issue fighter aircraft, and please can they have some more? Why not? That would solve everybody's problems, including the Russians'. They would at last have an export industry with customers who could pay in hard currency. Now the EFA lobby is busily scaring us with tales of the next Saddam Hussein — some Middle Eastern warlord with his own air force, picked up in a clearance sale, so that we must have the EFA to contend with him. I see no force in this argument. Why should his Migs be better than our Migs?
Buy now, pay later
THE WORLD has taken leave of two men of original mind, whose work was much admired, except by those who had to put up woth the consequences. One was Sir James Stirling, the architect: commission first, liti- gation afterwards. The other was General (formerly Air Marshal) Frederick Sharp, whose idea it was to merge the Canadian army, navy and air force. As so often hap- pens with mergers, the acrimony was appalling, the disillusion was rapid and the cost savings disappeared. Finally, the ser- vices had to be un-merged. So what hap- pened to Sharp? In retirement', I read, 'Sharp had a second career in management consultancy.' Even so, he missed his great- est chance. In this country, thanks to Sir Adrian Cadbury's recommendations, he would now be in keen demand as a non- executive director.
Tip for the Captain
CAPTAIN Threadneedle, this column's racing correspondent, asks me to help out the Jockey Club, which needs a business sponsor for its Newmarket classics. At Epsom, Hanson sponsors the Derby and Oaks. Newmarket has until now relied on the support of General Accident, which, all too well-named, has dropped out. Where (asks the Captain) should the Club, in these hard times, turn now? I have a nap selec- tion for him. Racing and drinking, as I need not remind him, go together, Whitbread and Hennessy have stamped their names on fine races, and at Newmarket a unique opportunity presents itself. I look forward to the Two Thousand (and One Thousand) Guinness. The trophies, as usual, would be optional.
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