Morrisons flying under David Potts. Does this mean he's going to get poached?

We're always being told that CEOs need silly money because there is an international market for their services. If true, Mr Potts should soon be fielding offers if he isn't already

There are many distinctly average CEOs in Britain, on far bigger packages, who won’t get close to what Potts has achieved over just a couple of years in their entire careers (Reuters)

Should the Morrisons board be worried about boss David Potts getting poached?

It has probably never been tougher for Britain’s grocers, and yet Mr Potts has just unveiled a 40 per cent rise in first half profits at the number four chain, that looked to be in terminal decline and headed straight for the buffers when he took over.

Sales at stores open at least a year also showed a nice improvement. In between turning the business around, Mr Potts has struck deals with Amazon and McColl’s. He even found a way to move forward with Ocado, in the wake of a widely criticised agreement struck by his panicking predecessors.

The turnaround he has overseen is as impressive as it was unexpected, and while a job like that can never be accomplished by one man alone, requiring a team of bright, motivated, talented, people, around them, he deserves an awful lot of credit.

There are many distinctly average CEOs in Britain, on far bigger packages, who won’t get close to what he has achieved over just a couple of years in their entire careers.

Here’s the point I’m getting to. One of the reasons boards use to justify paying more and more money to those distinctly average CEOs, who are professional managers, remember, not entrepreneurs, is that they are super people with rare talents for which there is a cut-throat international market. If we don’t pay them, someone will!

Perhaps an American someone. It’s not a big secret that the salaries on offer over there outstrip even the silly money thrown around over here. If you really want to get rich then go west, young man. Or young woman.

With the notable exception of Calpers, and one or two others, they don’t even make all that much of a fuss about it. The media is largely quiescent, if not supportive. Those who do criticise CEO excess stateside stand to be accused of being limp-waisted liberal traitors indulging in the politics of envy on Fox Business. Or something like that.

And yet, it’s very rare to see British CEOs heading over there. You don’t see JP Morgan raiding HSBC. And you don’t see Walmart raiding Tesco. And you don’t see Geiko raiding Aviva.

There is more movement in the strata beneath the top level, it’s true, but if there is a global market for CEO talent it isn’t a very active one.

Mr Potts won’t go hungry at Morrisons. Far from it. His remuneration committee will make sure his bonuses and long-term incentive schemes pay out, and no one will bat so much as an eyelid when they do.

Given where Morrisons was when he took over, he’s going to do very well.

But it remains the case that Morrisons is Britain’s number four retailer. His board may try to bump up his pay, and again, I doubt anyone will complain overly if it does. But there will still be another board out there, perhaps an American board, perhaps one from somewhere else, that could pay him still more.

If the international market exists, and if the only way to combat it is to shell out, Potts should get poached. There are bigger, better-paying jobs out there, and he should be a shoo-in for one of them.

But if even if it does happen, he’ll be the exception that proves the rule.