The news wiped around £170m off the company's value as shares
plummeted 38% to 351.8p in trading on 20 April.
Thinking
positively, the person responsible should perhaps be thankful that the UK
financial environment is relatively benign in that, apart from the impact on
the share price, no personal retribution need be expected.….
Other
geographies can be less tolerant...
For instance,
in the early years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, a marketing director
pal working in Moscow, issued a new trade discount structure at 0900, realised during
coffee break he had inadvertently approved an arithmetical error that would
cost some key distributors (with strong family ties in the ‘toe’ of Italy) significant
sums before a correction would kick in…..
The company immediately
despatched cars to his apartment and kindergarten to pick up his wife and
child, and all three were on a flight out of Moscow by early afternoon….
KAM Moral: If
you make a mistake in the numbers, be the first to discover, admit and have an appropriate correction plan ready.. You are already first at Square Two, take
advantage of it…
In other
words, get used to approximating ‘in your head’ and develop the ability to spot
figures that do not add up (remember that manual skill that allowed you to
graduate from kindergarten?), and always keep your car-keys in your pocket,
just-in-case….