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WE used to think of the public sector as sluggish and cautious and private corporations as fleet of foot. But as far as senior jobs are concerned there is a role reversal.
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Gordon Brown has snatched David Varney, one of the country's more impressive industrialists, from under the noses of Marks & Spencer, Shell and several other companies that might well have seen him as a future chairman.
The speed with which Varney has been through the rigorous approval process for public appointments is impressive. Brown only unveiled his plans to merge Customs & Excise and the Inland Revenue in his March Budget and a couple of months later the new man is parachuted into the job, without any of those mysterious leaks that accompany company board appointments.
This is becoming something of a habit. Michael Grade left a raft of private sector jobs to become the lowly-paid chairman of the BBC, after an equally speedy process.
So what is happening here? Company boards have become increasingly cautious in their appointments.
Instead of reaching out straightaway to the obvious candidates, and even openly advertising for key jobs, they insist on employing armies of headhunters and corporate governance experts before making their decision.
Even then they are still often grotesquely wrong, as when they appointed Sir Ian Prosser in preference to Sir Christopher Gent at J Sainsbury and had to abandon Prosser in the face of a shareholder revolt.
The independent directors who make up the nominations committees are behaving like frightened rabbits.
They are doing the corporations concerned no good. Shell would benefit from a powerful chairman and one like Varney, with experience at Shell and in the broader energy industry, would have been ideal. Instead they are prevaricating.
It is essential that Marks & Spencer, where the turmoil continues, finds a new boss urgently rather than let the sand slip through the hourglass.
As we have noted here, there are good retailers able and ready to go, as well as City grandees in search of a new role.
Varney will take a wage cut to head Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, but will no doubt be rewarded with a seat in the Lords. Before that he has a massive job to blend two different cultures at the Customs and Revenue and make some complex systems - which defeated his predecessors - work.
If anyone can cut through the morass, start slashing red tape for business and improve collections, it should be the mmO2 boss. Brown has chosen sensibly.
Broadband for all
THERE has been a great deal of caution in the City about the reach and powers of communications regulator Ofcom. But in arriving at an early deal with BT, Ofcom chief executive Stephen Carter has shown admirable restraint.
He has accepted that BT's offer, to cut by up to 70% the charges it makes to other telecoms groups and internet service providers for access to its local loop, is enough to inject more competition into the market. It also means that consumers will have far more choice on broadband access.
None of this necessarily will be too detrimental to BT's business model. It is keeping its planned telephone charging structure to households, despite some consumer and regulatory concerns.
More importantly, BT is planning to move swiftly to use its still-dominant market position in broadband to move up the value chain by offering a broader variety of services.
So although its revenues may shrink at first, it plans to recover ground on value-added and high-margin services.
Chief executive Ben Verwaayen seems greatly relieved that finally BT has a regulator with whom it can do business. The prospect of being forced to separate its wholesale and retail operations and sell the latter also retreats into the distance. Loosening the regulatory noose may yet prove a much-needed fillip to BT shares (which I hold) and which have been one of the FTSE's worst performers.
Brandes silence
CALIFORNIAN value investor Brandes continues to build up big strategic stakes in some of Britain's best-known companies. It is one of three value investors that own 20% of Abbey National between them. Brandes itself has 12.7% of Marks & Spencer and 5% of J Sainsbury.
Despite the importance of these stakes, especially in a bid or a governance crisis, Brandes shrouds itself in secrecy. The boards of all three companies and the majority of shareholders would benefit from more understanding of the Brandes game plan.
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