Phew - it is 3 months since I last posted anything on the subject of boardroom bust ups and shareholder disputes. Too busy with my sleeves rolled up fighting battles on behalf of beleaguered clients!
Here are some things I learned in 2012 about shareholder disputes.
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My previous post on the 2011 series of the Apprentice proved fairly accurate from the point of view of the characters we were likely to meet. It was however wrong in one important respect!
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At least in Lord Sugar’s boardroom, if not the real world, women have clearly got the upper hand in the opening epsiodes of this year’s Apprentice. Three firings and three blokes trudging to the door with their wheelie cases following disconsolately behind them.
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The must see TV programme for afficionados of boardroom bust ups returns to our screens shortly. It can only be the Apprentice.
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This year’s Apprentice has drawn to a close with a worthy winner in Stella English. Both her and Chris Bates took on a difficult task in the final and showed that they had great business brains. Stella edged it by virtue of her better track record (and you suspect in part because of Lord Sugar’s greater affinity with her background).
What was notable is that a trait of both of the finalists was their ability to separate personality from business and avoid getting involved in the personal attacks that characterised many of the boardroom encounters.
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Once again The Apprentice is showcasing a selection of the personality types that can wreak havoc in the boardroom and cause shareholders to spectacularly fall out with each other.
This series is proving to be another guilty pleasure as you watch open mouthed at the antics of the candidates. The misguided self-belief and and unbridled hubris of some them is a delight to watch. The drama lovingly amplified by the claustrophobically shot confines of the boardroom.
The formula is much the same each week. Lord Sugar’s facial expressions get more and more pained as management speak and jargon is wheeled out as a substitute for genuine communication. The candidates bicker and apportion blame, most of it unjustified. They dissemble and deflect. They seem convinced they can pull the wool over the eyes of a ram that has tupped much bigger flocks before breakfast. Their wizened inquisitor points and a candidate is gone. Only a few eschew the judas hug of those who shared the final boardroom moments but scrabbled their way to fight another day.
Perfect television - but not something that you would want to see in a boardroom near you. Roll on the next episode.
The directors have come out as the initial victors in this boardroom battle (see previous post for details). It had emerged that in an attempt to block the sale, the shareholders George Gillett and Tom Hicks had exercised their shareholders rights by removing two of the directors. The High Court has found that this was in breach of undertakings given to RBS (who seem to have played the leading part in the court hearing) and awarded an injunction allowing the board to be reconvened to pursue the sale.
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The announcement by the board of Liverpool FC of a proposed sale of the club against the wishes of the current American owners raises some interesting issues. The sale looks like it will barely cover the club’s indebtedness and leave the shareholders little to show for their investment. What are the rights of shareholders in this situation and what are the powers of the directors?
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Having had my nose firmly stuck in some knotty cases over the last few months the existence of Junior Apprentice had somehow passed me by. Having finally caught an episode I am sad to have missed the earlier ones.
All the great ingredients of the main series are there - the over-confidence / arrogance, the backstabbing and the spectacular failures - just in a younger package. Some business commentators have been very snooty about the educational pretensions of the show - but who cares! This is entertainment but at the same time it is a microcosm of what goes on and what goes wrong in teams and boardrooms around the country.
I shall not be missing any of the future episodes.
The UK cabinet is the most powerful boardroom in the UK. Like all boardrooms it can be be the venue for bitter infighting as the recent attempted coup by Messrs Hoon and Hewitt neatly illustrates.
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Boardroom Disputes, Shareholders disputes | Ed Weeks | 
January 4, 2013 9:52 am | 
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