Should he stay or should he go — or will he already have gone by the time you read this? These are frequently asked questions about chief executives whose businesses hit troubled waters. It’s true that the higher you rise, the higher the risk if you don’t deliver, but it’s not always true that bosses should walk the plank whenever something major goes wrong: sometimes it makes more sense to stick around, take the flak and solve the problem. However, in the cases of Gavin Patterson of BT (ousted a week ago) and Paul Pester of TSB (still in post as we go to press), it would be fair to say the only way is exit.
You just have to look at BT’s share price graph, sinking steadily since late 2015, to see why investors were waiting for the steely-eyed incoming chairman Jan du Plessis to axe Patterson, whose glamorous personal PR has disguised the telecoms giant’s continuing failure to roll out superfast broadband at an adequate rate, generally please customers, meet regulatory expectations or deliver shareholder value.
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