Banham's Bane
Sell Unilever. That company — as a rule the most boring, for its size, in the world — is about to succumb to Banham's Bane. The disease, named for the genial director- general of the Confederation of British Industry, affects companies whose chair- men become the CBI's president. Its pathology is unclear. Presidents can de- velop exopthalmic vision or swelling of the head, while their companies suffer internal bleeding. For Dunlop, under Sir Campbell Fraser, it proved terminal. The president now is Sir Brian Corby, the first to be chosen from a financial company — the Prudential, no less. Even the Pm was not proof against Banham's Bane. It lost hun- dreds of millions on its abortive venture into estate agency, and for the first time in memory has cut its bonus rates to its policyholders. Now Sir Michael Angus of Unilever prepares to take over. I don't know what will happen to Unilever but it could become exciting.
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