Marks joins boardroom cull

THE New Year has not been a happy time in Britain's boardrooms. It is now the turn of David Norgrove, one of the old guard at Marks & Spencer, to join Iain Lumsden of Standard Life and Philip Hampton of Lloyds TSB who have bitten the dust in the last few days.

Sir Philip Watts, Shell's executive chairman, is hanging on by his fingertips.

The exodus of corporate chiefs points to the importance being attached to performance in an era when the top brass is more often than not over- compensated.

It also reflects the power of shareholder activism. If the chairman/ non-executives don't get you first, the big shareholders will, as was the case at Carlton, and is the likely outcome at Shell. Corporate governance reforms are making an impact.

The departure of M&S director of clothing Norgrove does not come as a huge surprise. The names of potential successors have been bruited for several weeks. But as a leftover from the imperial years of Sir Richard Greenbury and Peter Salsbury, he is no doubt a useful scapegoat. With his departure Yasmin Yusuf, the design guru, may start to feel exposed.

Chief executive Roger Holmes is concerned enough to turn to Lifestore chief Vittorio Radice for assistance in developing concept M&S department stores.

The M&S turnaround has stalled badly. Most worrying for investors, the group is struggling with its core offering to women. No wonder it wants to attract a high-profile product retailer such as Belinda Earl (formerly of Debenhams) or Stephen Sunnucks of New Look to turn its fortunes around.

What is worrying is that M&S appears to have missed a key change in women's clothing - the switch out of formal wear. Women in suits are out, casual wear is in. Fuelled by Per Una, casual sales are soaring, while formal has gone in the other direction.

This is trouble that M&S could do without. Having decided to switch focus on financial services and homeware, it is the basic business that is in difficulty with market share lost.

The only comfort is that this year M&S has gotten away without heavy discounting, so margins have held up. There can be no great excitement about food sales, which advanced just 0.5% over Christmas.

This is where Luc Vandevelde came in to pick up the pieces. Dynamism was injected and past practice overturned, not least in the supply chain. But M&S finds itself running on the spot and bonuses are to be slashed. Roger Holmes is having to respond to the crackle of criticism.

American conquest

GENERAL Charles Krulak plainly is unfazed by the battering Britain's credit card chiefs took at the hands of the Treasury Select Committee.

His American credit card group MBNA has set its sights on Britain's online bank Egg, having already bulked up by buying Alliance & Leicester's card franchise in 2002.

Majority owner Prudential appears ready to sell its 79% stake in a company valued by the stock market at £1.1bn. The cash will be useful to the Pru as it faces a visit from Financial Services Authority inspectors.

As a stand-alone internet bank, Egg demonstrated clearly that it is much easier to deliver cheaper banking products online. It boasted of cheaper credit card offerings, and better value current and deposit account models. It also sought to become a savings supermarket by offering a range of funds.

But in the end it is the Egg card that brought in the customers. Matters only started to go wrong when the company tried to export its model to France where it came up against the combined might of a financial services industry determined to repel boarders.

An MBNA buyout would remove a low-cost, low-charge player from a competitive market. So what may be good news for Egg's management and the Prudential could rebound on the consumer.

Job games

IT would be churlish not to applaud the latest jobless figures showing the lowest number of people claiming benefit since September 1975.

But it is worth pointing out that much of the latest growth is in the public sector-fuelled construction industry, and that many of those being added to the jobs roll are self-employed. This may make it more difficult for the Inland Revenue to collect their taxes.

One must not forget either that the 908,200 people unemployed are dwarfed by the 2.4 million Britons, of working age, claiming incapacity benefit. That is up by more than a quarter of a million since Labour took office.

So much for shrinking the welfare state and making work pay.