£765 on the clock
NABC (Not Another Bloody Committee) and I have a market for our Swedish clock which, as I noted last month, tells you how much a meeting is costing. You programme the salaries in and it works like a taxi meter. Now I find that this cost-conscious attitude to meetings is the rule at HSBC, holding company of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and, nowadays, the Midland. A glimpse at the minutes of one of its senior committees shows that ten people were present, that the meeting ran for 40 min- utes and that its estimated cost was £765. When this rule is enforced at the Midland, our clock will need to be fitted with an alarm. That bank was so infested with com- mittees that Sir Brian Pearse as chief exec- utive abolished them, only to find that they sneaked back, disguised as working parties and task forces.
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