What do you do when the CEO does the following:
- Lets the company share price fall to an all-time low?
- Issues a £40bn profit warning and the company finances are in a mess?
- Starts laying people off by the thousands?
- Claims he is doing a great job?
Now let’s look at how the CEO of UK Plc, Gordon Brown, is doing:
- The country’s share price (sterling, measured against the euro) has fallen to an all-time low.
- The pre-budget report is expected to announce a £40bn increase in the government’s borrowing requirement, a national profits warning if there ever was one.
- This week alone, BT announced 10,000 people are to be laid off and RBS announced 3,000 job cuts and unemployment has grown by 140,000 over the last quarter.
- Gordon Brown insists that he is the “best man for the job”, that he is leading the world recovery. Eleven years of success are all down to him, while this year’s problems are nothing to do with him at all.
Now let’s look at how Brown performs against the top five things that followers expect of a good leader:
- Vision. What is his vision? Instead of a Brown movement we have Brownian motion: a random walk from past to the future.
- Ability to motivate people. His tantrums are famous, his staff do not like working for him and he lacks the popular touch of his predecessor.
- Good in crises. To be fair, he has had a good credit crunch because it is intellectually interesting and requires no emotional engagement.
- Decisive. He micromanages, but blows the big decisions, like not calling a general election last year.
- Honesty and integrity. After 11 years in power, all the broken promises, spin, puff and half truths finally catch up with any politician.
Of course, this assumes that there is someone better to succeed him. Should we give incumbent President Obama a 51st state to look after?
(Photo: Whatleydude, CC2.0)
