Marks & Spencer, retailer of comfort food and soft lingerie, is an unexpected source of shareholder dissent. But so it was on July 14th when Sir Stuart Rose, the outgoing executive chairman, faced searching questions at the company's annual general meeting (agm). Superficially, they were directed at the ￡15m pay package offered to Marc Bolland, Sir Stuart's successor as chief executive, to lure him from a similar job at Morrison's, a rival grocery chain. But the real unease had to do with governance, and the fact that the M&S board had paid so much to hire a boss from outside, rather than planning for a decent succession from within.
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