Off Balance: Who let the dogs in? Wetherspoons asks FRC

OFF BALANCE loves a JD Wetherspoon press release.

They’re usually published in the jokey comic sans font, which makes them look not very corporate. Which is fine, there’s too much corporate stuff going around anyway.

And it seems JD Wetherspoon aren’t happy with ‘corporate stuff’ either. Or accounting watchdog the FRC.

In an article by JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin for Propel, he castigates current corporate governance rules as creating too few execs, and not enough experience on the board.

“The unholy combination of a majority of part-time non-executives, including the chairman, with a maximum of nine years’ tenure, and CEOs who average only four or five institutionalises these weaknesses,” states Martin in the article for Propel.

“The composition of the board of the Financial Reporting Council, which oversees governance, mirroring the non-executives on PLC boards, consists almost entirely of “City” types, with little experience of civvy street, let alone pub or supermarket companies.”

Wow, Martin is really venting his spleen here. And speaking of watchdogs, he begins the piece with: “Woof, woof! What’s that at the boardroom door? Why, it’s the [corporate governance] dog that hasn’t barked – until now.”

A fascinating read, click here for more.