Knowledge required

In his article ‘Time to put an experienced railway boss in charge of Network Rail’ ( RAIL 847), Christian Wolmar quotes Network Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy as saying: “Leadership is about experience, ability and personality. The backhanded criticism of Mark Carne that he somehow wasn’t as good as he could have been if he’d done 30 years on the railway is unfounded. He was given a bloody mess and has sorted it out extraordinary well.”

The vogue for management as a transferable skill, whatever the “experience, ability and personality”, has long gone. Jim Collins, in the book Good to

Great, shows how very often company greatness comes with an internal appointment as chief executive. High-profile external

appointments are often failures.

Managers who left General Electric (regarded as a hotbed of management talent) and went on to try their hand in other industries were not successful. General Electric now wants managers who have “deep expertise, a complete and total understanding of the business itself”. Such people make better decisions - why wouldn’t they?

Accenture, Ford and Qualcomm want the same. Oracle, IBM, UPS, Starbucks, Apple are all run by experts in database software, IT services, logistics, coffee shops, and so on. Are you surprised?

The chairman of Network Rail needs “experience, ability and personality”. But the chairman does not take business decisions. The chief executive - particularly the chief executive of Network Rail - does.

Please, please, can the next chief executive, as well as ability and personality, have an understanding of the business? Is it too much to ask? George Muir, London