The BP drama will fade: boards are allowed to ditch the chair

A n easy narrative about the great BP boardroom drama runs like this: the plodding non-executive directors couldn’t handle the blunt ways of the hard-charging chair they had hired precisely to give the place a kick. Therefore the defenestration of Albert Manifold after only eight months in post shows BP is even more dysfunctional than thought. The best outcome for shareholders, on this reading, would be a takeover bid from Shell to put everybody out of their misery. In the meantime, continues this interpretation, Amanda Blanc, the Aviva boss who is the senior independent director, should let somebody else lead the search for the next chair , given how her last production turned out. One can see the appeal of this narrative, of course. It superficially fits with BP’s recent history of muddle, which started with the fiasco of Bernard Looney’s exit in 2023. The former chief executive was found to have “failed to fully detail relationships with colleagues”, something the board should have gripped first time around. Then there was the flip-flopping over strategy as Looney’s green-tinged approach was abandoned in slow motion. Murray Auchincloss, as Looney’s finance chief, was probably the wrong person to replace him. The ineffectual Helge Lund, Manifold’s predecessor, stayed too long . Yet it is far too simplistic to conclude that Manifold’s exit is a continuation of the same confusion. In fact, the exact opposite view is more convincing. …