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Perhaps that explains why management struggled to face up to the severity of the crisis. An emergency rights issue came too late and secondary sites were sold off in dribs and drabs, when there should have been a giant “for sale” sign over every asset it owned
Sure, the covenant waiver expired yesterday but management sounded like they expected another stay of execution. Did they misjudge negotiations? Had lenders already made up their mind, did discussions take a serious turn for the worse, or was the best-case scenario over-egged again?
To be completely fair to Roberts, he’s not the only guilty party. I will never forget the boss of one of his rivals telling me that nail bars and beauty halls would save the industry from the online onslaught.
This crisis has placed an even bigger premium on truth-telling and not just of the kitchen-sinking sort Royal Mail’s stand-in boss delivered on Thursday. It is now incumbent on chief executives to produce an unvarnished assessment of the current picture. Shareholders, lenders, suppliers, and employees expect nothing but brutal honesty.
Those that pretend life is better than it is as they disappear into oblivion are not only doing themselves a disservice, it discredits the rest.
A big part of the problem is that bosses are increasingly terrified of going off script. There is now an entire industry dedicated to training chief executives in how to deal with the media and speak in public.
But this produces empty platitudes, cheap soundbites and meaningless corporate speak. Instead of being clearer, the message gets lost and confused. Well-paid captains of industry should be able to think and speak for themselves instead of relying on armies of advisers to do it for them.
Tesco’s misjudgement
Tesco’s recovery from 2014’s giant accounting scandal has been impressive. Online capacity doubled during lockdown and its “Aldi Price Match” campaign persuaded customers of the German discount chain to switch on a scale not seen in “over a decade”.
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