Portas means business

Some forceful words this week on corporate governance from ‘queen of shops’ Mary Portas OBE in London. She was among 150 corporate leaders in Whitehall to mark Better Business Day, a day to highlight businesses that work with a “purpose”.

Portas is co-chair of the Better Business Act campaign to reform directors’ duties as they are written in Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006. The campaign seeks a rewrite so that duties go further than shareholders’ interests to include those of a wider group of stakeholders.

Portas said the business world faces a “line in the sand moment”. “The world is on a knife-edge socially, culturally, environmentally. People are not just asking more from business, they are demanding it,” Portas said.

“But we are still shackled to outdated rules built for a world that no longer exists. This is not just an economic crisis, it is a systemic one. A system obsessed with short-term profit is killing long-term value.

“The Better Business Bureau Act will give businesses the power—and responsibility—to put people and planet on a par with profit.”

Serious food for thought. From the High Street.

A marathon, not a sprint

Speaking of which, JD Sports chief executive Régis Schultz told The Times this week of his concerns about “short-termism” in the City.

The French businessman said: “The problem with the UK stock market is there are too many short-term investors.”

He complains of investors who “don’t play the long game” and cause companies to go private. Schultz worries that the capital invested in the City is reducing and investors—and therefore investments—fail to stick it out for the long term.

The investors are here today and disinvested tomorrow to maintain liquidity, which is an uncomfortable place to be for a board.

Drops in the ocean?

Another uncomfortable position for a CEO is not receiving the bonus you thought was on offer.

Reports this week say liquidity for water company executives will evaporate when minsters ban them from receiving their annual bonanza.

The ban applies to CEOs and CFOs at six water companies and is backdated to the 2024-25 financial year.

The action comes as a result of new powers given to water regulator Ofwat through the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025.

The executive bonus tap is off. Meanwhile, we warily look at our taps at home, wondering what’s coming out of them.

American duty

Returning to executive pay for a moment, a survey of 2,000 US citizens reveals they find raising CEO pay levels the most “objectionable”bit of corporate behaviour, along with redundancies.

The research was carried out by boffins from business schools in Bonn, Mannheim and Harvard, who write: “Among our broad cross-section of respondents, we find the strongest and most consistent opposition to layoffs and CEO pay increases.

“More than 85% of participants believe the firm should not lay off employees—even when doing so generates large, certain financial gains. Similar views apply to increases in CEO compensation.”

At a time when many might lose their jobs to AI, it seems the US likes its companies taking a bit more care of their workers and their executives much less acquisitive.