Sweet move, bitter end

THE REPORT: Nestle investors were pitched back into choppy waters recently after the Swiss food giant changed its CEO for the second time in a year, ousting boss Laurent Freixe over an affair he had with a subordinate.

The company’s shares were indicated 1.9 per cent lower in premarket activity in Zurich following Freixe’s sudden dismissal following a board meeting to discuss the findings of an investigation into the relationship.

Therefore, the dismissal shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Freixe will be replaced by Philipp Navratil, a rising star at the maker of Nescafe coffee and KitKat chocolate bars, which has been struggling with sales volumes since the pandemic.

The dismissal of Freixe follows an investigation into an undisclosed romantic relationship with a direct subordinate, which breached Nestle’s code of business conduct, Nestle said. Freixe, who spent 39 years with Nestle, will receive no exit package following his departure, the company told Reuters.

Nestle’s shares, a bedrock of the Swiss stock exchange, have lost almost a third of their value over the past five years, underperforming European peers.

MY HUMBLE OBSERVATIONS:

First, the development clearly shows that there is no room for misdemeanour in high office, which is indeed a laudatory ethical position. That is because thousands of people in the service sector look up to the people who occupy these high offices. They often serve as role models for aspiring managers. The opposite has happened. Therefore, the dismissal shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The huge action against the CEO also underlines my belief that our efficiency, our commitment to work, our contribution to the company’s growth doesn’t automatically earn us the right to break day to day rules at work.

Well, we really can’t blame the CEO because the beating heart has been foreign to regulation and doesn’t always respond to lifeless words of man-made directives. It invariably plays the unbending monarch and not many can resist the embrace of the luscious king.

Love is notorious for dethroning kings our man is only an officer.

Therefore, when destiny threw up an opportunity to redraw the lines that encased his unanswered dreams, the gentleman grabbed it.

Having lived through decades of sweetness, he must have realised that tonnes of KitKat chocolate bars can’t make up for a bite of love. He decided to take a break.