There's nothing the media loves more than a good boardroom bust-up. And, in recent weeks, the opportunities to pick over the lurid details of power struggles, succession battles, fragile egos and corporate espionage have been bountiful.
In the US, perhaps the most dramatic example of a board riven with conflict is Hewlett-Packard, which paid private investigators an estimated $300,000 to establish who was leaking information to the press about secret board meetings after it ousted Carly Fiorina as chief executive in 2005. In September, the company admitted it had fraudulently obtained phone and fax records of journalists, family members, former board members and existing employees.
And in the UK, supermarket chain Morrisons suffered similar power struggles after a botched integration of recently acquired larger rival Safeway. Chairman Sir Ken Morrison was accused of disrupting the search for a new chief executive after the group was forced to part company with the long-serving Bob Stott. Much of the pressure was applied by Morrison's deputy, former Next boss David Jones, who, crucially, had the support of investors. As profits headed south, Morrison held firm, complaining that boardroom leaks to the media were undermining his position.
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