This week’s corporate governance exemplar stems from our brothers down south in Johannesburg. The insurance titan Old Mutual is in a bit of a tizzy after its board, on May 24, 2019, announced the suspension of the Old Mutual CEO, Mr Peter Moyo.
In the wintry three weeks between the suspension and the subsequent termination of employment announcement on June 17, 2019, it would appear that the board was trying to engage in a mutually acceptable separation agreement but talks collapsed spectacularly and culminated in the CEO’s termination of employment. Folks: Good CEOs don’t get fired, their exits are negotiated in a way that ensures that face is saved by the protagonists on the table who are the board on the one hand and the CEO on the other. By the time a CEO is getting fired, head office is ablaze and the fire extinguishers are broken. Or communication has simply broken down.
