Archie Norman: can the turnaround king save M&S?

Archie Norman &copy; Adrian Brooks/Imagewise

Archie Norman began his retail career at Woolworths, rising to become the youngest finance director in the FTSE 100. Yet that moment of triumph, if remembered at all, has sadly been eclipsed by the ignominy of his current position as chairman of Marks & Spencer (M&S), which has just been kicked off London's blue-chip index. The demotion is a big psychological blow for the 135-year-old national institution. It also piles pressure on Norman a "retail grandee" renowned for pulling off "resuscitation jobs". When he arrived two years ago, there were high hopes that he might restore M&S to its former glories, says The Sunday Times. But its shares have since fallen 37% to a 20-year low and analysts have begun muttering that this time "the turnaround king" might have "bitten off more than he can chew".

An early bloomer

When Norman was approached to run Asda in 1991, he accepted, later learning that "he was the only applicant". It was soon clear why: the down-at-heel supermarket chain was on the verge of bankruptcy and staff morale had collapsed. "Norman applied eccentric, touchy-feely management gimmicks he learned at McKinsey to get employees more involved," says the Daily Mail. They actually helped turn the ship. In fact, he had such a knack for picking talent and bringing it on that his Asda nursery spawned a generation of UK retail leaders. When he sold the rejuvenated chain to Walmart in 1999 following a helpful bidding war with his former employer, Kingfisher he got £6.7bn for it. Hats off.

An ill-judged foray into politics

Norman went on to score another triumph as chairman of ITV, presiding over "a near-fourfold rise in the broadcaster's share price", says the Financial Times. Widely considered a frontrunner to become the next chair of the BBC, he declined to apply for the job opting instead to perform his magic at M&S. He must be wondering about that decision now.

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Norman professes to be "unruffled" by the retailer's FTSE demotion, arguing that the same happened when he was at ITV and "the sky didn't fall in then", says The Observer. Indeed, you can count on him being "the last person panicking", says the Daily Mail: "sinking ships, after all, are busy Archie's spiritual home". Yet even the maestro must surely admit he's got his work cut out with this one.

Jane writes profiles for MoneyWeek and is city editor of The Week. A former British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) editor of the year, she cut her teeth in journalism editing The Daily Telegraph’s Letters page and writing gossip for the London Evening Standard – while contributing to a kaleidoscopic range of business magazines including Personnel Today, Edge, Microscope, Computing, PC Business World, and Business & Finance.