“Somebody has to give”: Sir Stuart Rose calls for review in business ethics

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Former chief executive and chairman of Marks & Spencer yesterday incited the Government to begin a review into ethics of fair pay in business.


Speaking at the Hay Festival, Rose told audience members, “We have to accept that over the last year or three the division between the lowest paid and the highest paid has got wider, so that does need looking at.”


During the on-stage discussion with former CBI director general Digby Jones, Rose defended bumper bonus payments for company ceos, stating that, “I can see how someone who makes a bank a failure and walks away with £5m is a complete disgrace, but at Marks & Spencer no one in senior management got a bonus unless all the staff got a bonus and the other thing was we didn’t pay for failure.”

“The biggest rule that I think people should set themselves is: no pay for failure. That’s what people really, really hate. It is a live topic of debate and it’s one that won’t go away.”


Although Rose said he was “sympathetic” with his support of the Hutton Review of Fair Pay, he added that, “Somewhere, somebody has to give. While I think the Government has to back off in many areas in terms of ethics and sustainability they don’t do a thing. We’ve had Government reviews into everything else, why not ethics?”

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