Stephen Hester: for the good of banking, take your bonus!

Friday, January 27th, 2012 - Employment, Executive Headhunters, Executive Recruitment, Executive Search, Executive Selection, Managing Director Job

Stephen Hester:

for the good of banking,

take your bonus!

I posted a piece today over at Blokes on the Blog entitled: Stephen Hester: for the good of banking, take your bonus!

In it, I argue that:

1. Hester was one of the few “clean” bankers in 2008
2. He had the right track record for addressing the problems at RBoS, having turned around Abbey National in 2004/6
3. He was appointed/approved on a contract personally approved by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown
4. The bonus he was awared went through 4steps to get to the point when it was released to the public. Its half what it was in 2010

My conclusion is that Hester should give up part of his bonus, and donate it to the start of a UK national society level banking initiative. Hester’s thing is gardening, so it could be an initiative to use gardening to get young unemployed people back into work via gardening.

But unless Hester is backed by the government, then giving up his bonus will be one futile gesture. As I say in the post, a damp squib in banking terms.

Stephen Hester knew what he was taking on when he took the job at RBoS: half the pay, twice the hassle, but as he said at the time there are few occasions in life when such an opportunity occurs. He was the right man for the job, as much as the job was the right one for him.

Did he think then that his contracted pay and bonus would be subjected to such political and media highlight? He’s a politically astute man, so I dare say that he took that “calculation”, but I am sure that even the high intensity spotlight now applied to his bonus surprises him.

I personally don’t see the current debate around Hester’s bonus as a reflection on him or its value. The previous year he got twice as much, so its not about the money.

In a great part I conclude personally its about the lack of a political opposition. So without one, the media have decided to become the coalition governments “opposition”. This has made Hester’s bonus the first of their play things.

Do directors or senior managers of companies ever take politics into consideration when taking up job offers? Much as though I conclude Hester did – it was written into the wider job specification, if not his contract – then most don’t. An old boss of mine said: “Always when taking a decision, think what you would say if this ended up as the headline in The Sun?”

Trying to PR and spin against the whole of the combined British media is an impossible task, but one which has been so far handled well by Hester: he hasn’t said a word. I expect the first comment to be made when RBoS announces its quarterly and annualised results in February, as the media heat is too hot at present. No point in playing politics when you are not a politician.

Stephen Hester is the right man for the RBoS job, but its far easier to focus on his bonus than to see the tought task that he still has ahead of him. A great pity, but that’s the way it is some times – in politics, if that’s what’s involved in the job you have taken.

Good Luck!

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