CITY AND SUBURBAN
A perfect storm blows up at Marks & Spencer and the answer's not in code
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Sir Richard Greenbury never strikes me as remorseful. He could join the former chancellor whose name eludes me in whistling Je ne regrette rien. Even so, Marks & Spencer's formidable chairman must rue the day when Downing Street conned him into laying down the law on corporate gov- ernance. CA matter of public concern, Sir Richard ... we'd rather not have to legis- late ... someone uniquely respected, as you are ... so much better like that ... ways of showing our appreciation ... we won't for- get you.') Now he flies home into a perfect storm over the governance of Britain's most respected company, and lands in the eye of it. Which of his team should be chief executive? The one he wants, or the one who does not seem to want him, or the one who has been keeping quiet and hopes to comes through on the rails? Should M & S, for the first time, look outside for a chief executive, or for a chairman? Sir Richard says that retail business has fallen off a cliff. Is that the whole story or does M & S show signs of losing the plot? It is a wonderful club, which operates by its own rules and assumes that everybody knows what to expect. Just try shopping there with a credit card, except, of course, one of M & S's. It sees no incongruity between the food and the clothes that it sells — school vests and Thai fishcakes in the same bag. It has no marketing director, because it believes (or so I understand) that in this business, mar- keting is everybody's job. Yes, but does it now need to be somebody's job in particu- lar? No code can answer that. Sir Ronald Hampel, who wrote the one after Sir Richard's, said that boards were not there to jump through the hoops of compliance, but to make their companies prosper. Marks & Spencer's must now earn its keep.
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