The leader has a reputation for moving quickly and plain speaking. In the surprise ousting of the chief executive who has only been in the job 18 months , he has lived up to the speed part. But what happened to the famed blunt speaking when it came to why the chief executive had to go . There was, claimed the leader, no personality clash or disagreement on strategy. By way of explanation a statement said that the Local authority, “operates in an increasingly complex and challenging environment “. This looks like a case of the leader and the cabinet regretting their choice of chief executive. The reference to “complex and challenging environment “ seems to indicate they thought they were getting someone more dynamic. So no financial mismanagement or dip in performance just all to predestined for the ambitious cabinet. The outcome is embarrassing for the leader as he led the process that approved the appointment. Even more so since he championed the need for an external candidate whilst other members favoured a safe internal appointment. But cabinets are allowed to change their minds and indeed should do so if they perceive a problem. Would you be surprised to learn this was not a large county council or big unitary authority but in fact a Bank. I simply changed chairman and board for leader and cabinet in the financial section of the news paper reports. Does this indicate what I think it does that there really isn’t that much difference between how those in big commercial businesses and local authorities operate at the top.
Well there is one big difference the former chief executive of the bank is apparently inline for a payoff of a years salary plus up to a £million from bonuses and incentives!
Blair Mcpherson former Director, author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
