Memo to the CEO: Office romance is also the board’s business
Senior executives should disclose workplace relationships
NESTLE’S dismissal last week of its chief executive officer Laurent Freixe for failing to disclose a romantic relationship fits an all-too-familiar pattern.
It follows the ousting of Bernard Looney on similar grounds at BP in 2023, the resignation of NBC’s Jeff Zucker in 2022, McDonald’s sacking of Steve Easterbrook in 2019, and so on, back to Harry Stonecipher, who stepped down at Boeing in 2005. All had failed to reveal relationships with colleagues.
The problem of how, or even whether, to regulate a natural human instinct persists. The evidence suggests codes of conduct are not working. Is there a better way?
TRENDING NOW
Singapore at 61: How we can ensure opportunity, security and ownership for the next generation
With tech for fact-checking to cancer care, Singapore startups aim beyond home
Vietnam seeks US$76 billion a year from capital markets to ease reliance on banks
How BYD disrupted Singapore’s car market – and why the strategy is turning on itself