Is the clock ticking
for UK label executives?
How important are the leaders of a company to its financial performance? UK industry analyst Plimsoll Publishing Ltd. says the UK label industry will soon find out since one in four of its company directors will be over 60 years of age by the end of 2005. This prompts the question: Who will follow in the footsteps of these industry stalwarts as they near the ends of their careers?
Plimsoll’s latest study analyzes the UK’s top 545 companies and the 1,134 company directors that are responsible for them. David Pattison, senior analyst, says: “The reason for most concern is that of the 515 directors that have been in office for over eight years, 37 percent will be age 60 or more by the end of 2005. Is the industry facing an experience ‘time bomb’ as these veterans near retirement age?”
The full 782-page analysis of the UK labeling industry includes an examination of the age and time in office of directors at the top 545 companies. It assesses how their decisions have influenced the financial performance of the companies for which they are accountable. Directors are named in the analysis under various sections. The so-called “marathon runners” are the 733 directors most likely to have influenced the financial performance of the companies they run. Each has been in office over five years, making their track record clearly visible. The analysis places 26 percent of the companies run by these directors in a high financial risk category.
The “recently appointed” are those directors who have it all to prove, but face varying challenges. Of the 152 directors that have been appointed in the last two years, 62 are working at companies that are under severe financial pressure. They need to act quickly to get these companies on a firm footing. On the other hand, 34 of them are fortunate to be working for financially strong companies.
Plimsoll’s analysis also examines the influence of a director’s appointment on the performance of a company over the