Mark Kleinman: Post Office needs a boss who can read the room

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.cityam.com/mark-kleinman-po ... -the-room/

Not a moment too soon. To read the Post Office’s account of its departing chief executive’s tenure, it has been an unmitigated triumph.

Nick Read, we are told, succeeded in leading a settlement with hundreds of Group Litigation claimants, “beginning the journey to address the wrongs of the past and to reset the relationship with Postmasters that continues today”.

No reference in that to the fact that the settlements with them were derisory, with much of their compensation ultimately swallowed by litigation funders.

Read also, according to his employer, “championed the appointment of two serving Postmasters to the board and focused on increasing postmaster remuneration, investing in training, expanding field teams and supporting Postmasters as part of a broader initiative to place today’s Postmasters at the heart of Post Office”.

That’s harder to argue with, but how much tangible difference it has made to the careers and prospects of sub-postmasters is, according to some observers, debatable.

Ultimately, what the Post Office statement did not say was far more instructive. Read was, according to former colleagues and ministers, obsessive about his pay, repeatedly seeking increases to his remuneration even as the state-owned company’s balance sheet showed growing signs of strain. On more than one occasion, it was suggested to Whitehall officials that he would resign if his demands were not met.

Read’s relationship with former chairman Henry Staunton also turned out to be highly dysfunctional, with the pair descending into playground squabbling, allowing little focus on the real victims of the Horizon IT scandal.

The last government resolved the first part of that by removing Staunton; Read’s resignation offers the chance for a more comprehensive reset.

Nigel Railton, the former Camelot executive who has arrived as the Post Office chairman, is said by colleagues to have a clear vision for strengthening Post Office staff’s connection to the centre of the business, potentially including through a mutualisation in some form.

His more immediate task, though, is to appoint the right CEO to run an organisation badly in need of executive leadership. Picking one who isn’t constantly seeking more money would be a good place to start.