Forum Archive Index - December 2000

["hugh webber" <hugh.webber@clear.net.nz>]

Gerry, some very thoughtful observations there and the
beginning of a new science - analysis of companies 
via the traits of the directors and their behaviour!
I notice BIL finally disposed of its corporate jet.

Maybe there's another one as well, attendance at Board
meetings. I'd say you'd need a damned good excuse but
a look at attendance records makes you wonder in some
cases. 
Then there are the 'trophy' directors, invited onto
the Board because they have 'Sir' in front of their name, 
or they belong to a Politically Correct minority which 
apparently includes women even though they are a majority
of the population, or because they used to be good at some 
sport or are 'well known' in some other way. Most of these
people don't appear to contribute.

Possibly there are other warning signs as well....I recall 
looking through the Telecom list of directors/managers
a while ago and the thing that that struck me was that 
although they were nearly all qualified in some way they 
were nearly all qualified in the wrong subject for what 
they were doing -
things like political science and civil engineering as distinct
from electrical engineering.

I'd like to think they all disappeared in 1987/88 but I fear it
wasn't so.
It is actually one of the things I try to do, look through the
list of directors to get an impression, but even that can
get to be dangerous if you see one you respect, you jump on
board and he promptly defects.
Defecting directors can be a first sign of things to come;
I recall dear old Sir George Chapman defecting from Perry
Dines I think it was in the 1987 era, 'because New Plymouth
didn't fit in with his busy travel schedule around NZ'.
I wasn't terribly surprised to see PD in the poo a few months
later after he had hurriedly extricated himself first.
Good stuff Gerry.

cheers,
Hugh


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