Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Unsteady Eddie
Today's paper suggests that the Stobart Group has had difficulties
leading to a rearrangement of the management team. If this is true, the
venture into legal services looks like a classic case of taking your eye
off the ball. I don't dabble in shares, but if I did, the barrister
wheeze would have been a cue to sell.
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It does look like a good call. Well spotted.
ReplyDeleteIn 'Parkinson's Law' Professor Parkinson reckoned that the writing was on the wall when a company acquired for itself a grand new corporate head office. This was a sign that the end was nigh, and one should sell the shares before it was too late.
ReplyDeleteMaybe other 'vanity' projects could be a similar signal.
Then there's the corporate jet, the flagpole, the Queens Award to Industry Bd the chairman joiningZ do-good committees
ReplyDeleteThe connection between a haulage company and the legal profession is akin to Royal Mail offering accountancy services.
ReplyDeleteHaving worked inside many companies at a high level, this sounds like the MD having a sudden bright idea and thinking of what they could do rather than should. Of course the subordinate executives all follow sheeplike lest they see their careers take a nose dive.
Over the years I have seen so many businesses throw millions at a new venture only for it to fall flat because they did not make use of the grey matter beforehand.
ReplyDeleteClearly one should have no truck with such people.
Apart from not really thinking that the idea was going to be good for the Bar, i also couldn't really see that it was ever going to work. I am old-fashioned enough to think that people should find their specialism and be really good at it, rather than trying to branch out into various new fields.