Marks sparks shareholder anger.

Marks and Spencer may have claimed this week that it is helping to lower the dreaded food inflation, but is almost certainly raising the blood pressure of its army of shareholders.

A good year selling more food.

The high street retailer said this week it had made a good start to the year growing food sales by 8.7% over the last year, Reuters reported. The company also stressed it had taken a hit on food revenue by electing not to pass on rising costs to the shoppers. 

Zoom in?

Yet in the midst of this self-congratulation, there was confusion. Britain’s fastest growing food retailer told shareholders they must no longer attend annual meetings for face-to-face interactions with board members and instead log in on Zoom or a similar online platform. 

“Any shareholders travelling to the venue against the board’s recommendations will be advised to join the meeting electronically and will be provided with assistance to do so, if needed,” the company said.

Down like a lead balloon

As anyone who has spent time in business will tell you, this is going to go down with shareholders like a lead balloon. It flies in the face of the overarching scrutiny that shareholders are meant to bring to the business.

“This is an outrageous development and should be opposed by all shareholders before it is embraced as an easy option by other boards,” John Lee wrote in the Financial Times.  

“Too often boards forget that we shareholders own the company…To cut out the opportunity for a relaxed dialogue with directors  is totally unacceptable. Frankly, the board of M&S should be ashamed that they have gone along with this approach”

No truer word said. Anyone who has been to a results presentation – as I have, scores of times – will tell of the important  role that shareholders play in the accountability and good governance of companies. 

Why we need questioning shareholders

Shareholder activism can be the box office attraction of many dreary results presentations. They stand up at the back of the room, often brandishing a bunch of papers, and don’t hold back.They remind board members that they work for shareholders and not the other way round. Their critical words often draw laughter and howls of anger; people have made movies about them.  

The scourge of sloppy accounting

Shareholders shed light on the shortfalls and shenanigans that board members would prefer to see swept under the carpet. They are the scourge of sloppy accounting and money wasting – after all, it is their money in the company and they want it looked after. 

Often a shareholder can raise a discrepancy in the accounts that evaded the chief accountant, the chief financial officer as well as the board. It is frightening  how much of company accounts can be missed; or, worse still, swept under the carpet. 

I reckon one feisty, crusty, shareholder activist is worth more than an army of regulators when it comes to keeping companies honest and within the bounds of corporate governance.After all, that’s what we want in the 21st century- isn’t it ? No more Enrons please!  

Log in or tune out

From now on, M&S shareholders will have to log on with something like Zoom if they want to make their point. It may be a non-starter for many shareholders – many are senior people who don’t do the internet. 

For those who can get on Zoom, it is not going to be a good space for shareholders to be in. I have been on remote Q and As on Zoom many times and there is always that feeling that you are out of it. It is very easy for those running the show in the room to – shall we say it diplomatically – overlook you if they don’t want to hear what you have to say; or find you and your questions uncomfortable

Anyway if Marks and Spencer can help bring down prices – something the government is failing at right now –  surely, it can do right by its shareholders .