On the money with Damian Wild

The boardroom setting is familiar, the same raw ambition is on display and there are ­ and will be ­ winners and losers along the way.

Ok, there may be no Sir Alan. TV cameras are in somewhat shorter supply. And these Apprentices may be altogether more seasoned.

Nevertheless The Apprentice: CEO edition, a pilot show where finance directors get the opportunity to step up to the top job, has as many twists and turns as the real thing and is every bit as watchable.

The latest contestant is Tesco’s Andrew Higginson. Group FD, strategy director and a board member for over a decade, Higginson was appointed chief executive of retailing services at the supermarket giant last month.
Is he being groomed for the top job? Many saw it that way, interpreting the move as one that would give him the broader business credentials he would need to fill Sir Terry Leahy’s shoes.

Higginson’s move follows in the footsteps of Helen Weir, group FD of Lloyds TSB until her recent elevation to head of UK retail banking in a CV-boosting move.

Yet the FD to CEO career path is no shoo-in. Ask Jonathan Symonds.

The ex-AstraZeneca FD had been seen as a future CEO. Once he missed out on that role, however, he hightailed it to Goldman Sachs.

Keep an eye on Marks & Spencer FD Ian Dyson, seen as a potential successor to Stuart Rose. Will he need ­ and will he get ­ a divisional CEO job at the retailer before Rose steps down in? In the current climate he probably needs one.

Sir Alan, I suspect, would agree.

Damian Wild is group editor in chief of Accountancy Age