The board of oil major BP has removed its Chairman, Albert Manifold, reportedly because he was given to bullying and "shouty" behaviour.
That is not what the sanitised text of the board's statement said. The board said his removal, which was unanimous, "...follows serious concerns raised to the board related to important governance standards, oversight and conduct."
An FT report presented a more unsanitised version of what transpired:
Manifold, who was appointed BP chair less than a year ago, was viewed by other BP directors as too aggressive, according to other people familiar with discussions inside the company. Several colleagues saw the level of control he exerted as more akin to that of an executive chair, these people claimed. They alleged Manifold at times spoke down to senior members of staff, both in one-to-one encounters as well as in larger meetings. One person familiar with BP claimed that describing Manifold as “shouty” was “understating it”, adding: “They thought they were hiring a tough change agent, they didn’t think they were hiring a bully.”
It is a tribute to British corporate culture that a Chairman can be removed not for want of performance or for malfeasance but simply because he had behaved badly.
If the BP board's criterion were to applied in India, I suspect a significant chunk of corporate India would be decapitated.
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