The latest from our blog

Risk denial – symptoms?

Is your board in denial about a risk that is obvious yet nobody will acknowledge? Maybe it is hidden in plain sight because to admit it would challenge a key policy and require a major rethink? [...]

Leadership risk

Thursday 24 February 2022 will long be remembered as the day the Putin war started. Ironically only the previous week I spoke on the Henley Board Development Programme about the risk posed by a [...]

ESG for small investors

ESG strategies have been popular with fund managers and institutional investors for a couple of years. However, small investors continue to seek clear definition of what an ESG compliant business [...]

Lateral flow or U turn?

Last week the medicines regulator (MHRA) refused to approve mass daily testing in schools, yet next week teachers will be required to take virus tests twice a week, so what has prompted this [...]

Risk to public trust

Today the contact tracing app is finally launched as part of the UK government strategy to combat the covid virus. Will this be a useful tool or another expensive experiment in centralised big [...]

Reputational laundromat

The Russia report of the intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) released today claims that Russian money was probably used to buy influence in British politics. It claims that the UK [...]

Reputation of the UK?

The ‘dog days’ of August get their name from the dog star Sirius which is visible at this time of year, it is not true that the minority government of Boris Johnson  will be [...]

Can fines change culture?

The UK water company Southern Water has accepted a fine of £126M from the water regulator Ofwat for deliberately misreporting its sewage treatment and waste water discharges. The Environment [...]

Activism gets personal

News this week from the Investment Association confirms earlier reports from Lazards and Forbes, namely that shareholder activism is on the increase. Shareholder revolts against the [...]