Mr Clarke's three years at the helm is, in fact, one year less than Dalton Philips has had so far at Morrison, or his predecessor Marc Bolland at the helm of M&S. Neither has made any great strides forward, and Morrison appears to be in a state of chaos; its last reported like-for-like sale figures in May were the worst I can remember seeing from any grocer, a drop of 7.1 per cent. Luckily I am not really a betting man because after that performance I thought Mr Philips' position was untenable.
As it happens, in Morrison's case, it is the chairman Sir Ian Gibson who will be leaving, announcing plans to step down less than a month after the grizzly figures were revealed. Cause and effect? Who knows, but it looks very much to me like Sir Ian took the easy way out - a much harder task would surely have been to admit the chief you've hired isn't up to the task.