As the cigar smoke in the boardrooms clears, the comfortably reclining figures are instantly revealed as being of two types: the executive directors who run the business and take the rap, and the non-executive directors who, having read their papers carefully for the pre-lunch board meeting, asked their statutory question, and enjoyed a reasonable rib of beef, are ready to depart blamelessly to their bank, chambers, farm or villa for another two months.

The key directors on our board all know what I have done to make our company perform. They made me the CEO because I was the best candidate they could find. I have worked my butt off at great sacrifice to my family and personal life to transform this company and make it perform better than it ever had before. I don't need any of their penetrating questions or second-guessing. Thanks to my own tough bargaining, I am financially secure and set for life. If they can get someone better than me to do the job, then that's what they should do. Until then let them back off and stay out of my way.

We trained hard – but every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganised. […]