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Mike

Steve Stone

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The business I work in, does not encourage husband & wives working together due to the issues it can bring. Not the most professional of structures.. I can not imagine Webber or his wife ever disagreeing thus they have a very powerful say on our direction.

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="PurpleCanary"]
[quote user="Jim Smith"]I guess the key question in terms of how worrying it is is why? He could just have been offered a better paid job and decided to jump ship. The alternative is that there is some other reason he has decided to leave such as disagreements behind hmthe scenes or a realisisation he was fighting a losing battle under the self funding model.

He’d better not get a payoff if he’s quit though and Balls better not pocket another hefty sum for “standing in”[/quote]
He seems to have been put on gardening leave, which suggests he is either after a competitor job in football or there has been a bust-up behind the scenes. I doubt the self-funding model has anything to do with it. If anything that would be a satisfying challenge to make work. I suspect - not just because of this - that Webber will be promoted to the board.
[/quote]
Only a guess but I suspect Stone, assuming he stays in football, wants now to be a proper CEO, including taking on the football stuff, which was never going to happen with us while Webber or another sporting director was in place. The reshuffle certainly doesn''t diminish Webber''s power, far from it, and he may well soon join the board.
[/quote]
Just to add, Stone''s phrase about "...the time is now right for me to seek a new challenge..." is normally used when someone doesn''t have a new job lined up, as opposed to when they do. But this may be the exception.

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[quote user="Mike "]The business I work in, does not encourage husband & wives working together due to the issues it can bring. Not the most professional of structures.. I can not imagine Webber or his wife ever disagreeing thus they have a very powerful say on our direction.[/quote]
I''m guessing you''ve never been married...[:P]

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[quote user="Mike "]The business I work in, does not encourage husband & wives working together due to the issues it can bring. Not the most professional of structures.. I can not imagine Webber or his wife ever disagreeing thus they have a very powerful say on our direction.[/quote]I''m lost here Mike, I''m assuming his wife works for the club so what position does she hold?

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Apparently Lapps this Zoe Ward is Webber''s wife who is currently employed at the club as project director whatever that may mean.

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Yeah there is something very questionable about having a three person executive committee consisting of a husband and wife pair with one other person.

Did Ward join when Webber did or was she here before him?

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[quote user="lappinitup"][quote user="Mike "]The business I work in, does not encourage husband & wives working together due to the issues it can bring. Not the most professional of structures.. I can not imagine Webber or his wife ever disagreeing thus they have a very powerful say on our direction.[/quote]I''m lost here Mike, I''m assuming his wife works for the club so what position does she hold?[/quote]

My understanding is that Zoe Ward is Webber''s wife and she is is one of the three members of the new "executive committee" who will effectively run the club and report to the board now Stone has gone along with Stuart Webber and Ben Kensell.

I believe it was mentioned a while ago that she had also taken over much of the responsibilities for contracts and liaising with agents etc. Not sure if that was part of her original role when she came to the club or whether that was a previous promotion.

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Found it now.......
"Formerly director of football administration, Ward can often be seen

alongside husband Stuart Webber in the directors box at Carrow Road and

during away games.

Ward has plenty of experience in the football

industry, following spells at Fulham, Liverpool, the Premier League,

Surrey County Football Association and with McCormicks Solicitors.

Her

profile on City’s website states: Zoe manages the club’s football

administration function which includes club secretarial, player liaison,

first team and academy operations.

“Zoe brings a wealth of

experience in player, club and agent negotiation throughout all age

groups and works closely with the football departments on the delivery

of player transfers, contracts and registrations.”

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Don''t think anyone is suggesting she isn''t good at her job- just some understandable skepticism about a husband and wife holding two of the three places on this committee.

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So, all we know is that Steve Stone has left the club but we don''t know why.

Yet already, depending on how peoples views lean towards the board the conspiracy theories are being hinted at.

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"]
[quote user="Mike "]The business I work in, does not encourage husband & wives working together due to the issues it can bring. Not the most professional of structures.. I can not imagine Webber or his wife ever disagreeing thus they have a very powerful say on our direction.[/quote]
I''m guessing you''ve never been married...[:P]
[/quote]

Twice... there was no argument, I did as I was told or suffered the consequences

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See Robin Sainty being bitchy about people on this post... one club... one support... dear oh dear.

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I suppose there will be a spare seat on the charter executive jet, that occasionally zooms there and back to some away games.....?

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Termination of Steve Stone’s appointment as director lodged with Companies House yesterday and filed online this morning.

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[quote user="Mike "]See Robin Sainty being bitchy about people on this post... one club... one support... dear oh dear.[/quote]
Are you really surprised Mike ?

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No but for someone who complained (rightly) about the abuse he received, he doesn''t half like dishing it out. Very insecure if you ask me....

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It''s amateur hour again at Carrow Road.

This is what I do for a living - I am a professional Managing Director/COO/CEO principally in the financial services industry and have been doing it for many years.

It never ceases to amaze me that football clubs, which are essentially like any other business in terms of resources and management needs, constantly get this kind of thing so wrong.

A husband and wife both serving on a Board or an exec team is a simple no. Completely ludicrous and about as tinpot and amateur as is possible.

Having no senior Finance officer operating at Board level is also unheard of in my experience. Who is devolving the financial authority and where is the accountability?

This new arrangement simply cannot work - it has zero chance of success.

If Steve Stone left because of this type of amateur, almost feudal approach to business then that is very understandable. I don''t care how good Mrs Stuart Webber is at what she does, she shouldn''t be doing it at the same place as her husband in this type of organization.

I am a shareholder and I will be asking the Board some questions.

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[quote user="sgncfc"]It''s amateur hour again at Carrow Road.

This is what I do for a living - I am a professional Managing Director/COO/CEO principally in the financial services industry and have been doing it for many years.

It never ceases to amaze me that football clubs, which are essentially like any other business in terms of resources and management needs, constantly get this kind of thing so wrong.

A husband and wife both serving on a Board or an exec team is a simple no. Completely ludicrous and about as tinpot and amateur as is possible.

Having no senior Finance officer operating at Board level is also unheard of in my experience. Who is devolving the financial authority and where is the accountability?

This new arrangement simply cannot work - it has zero chance of success.

If Steve Stone left because of this type of amateur, almost feudal approach to business then that is very understandable. I don''t care how good Mrs Stuart Webber is at what she does, she shouldn''t be doing it at the same place as her husband in this type of organization.

I am a shareholder and I will be asking the Board some questions.[/quote]
My understanding is that Mrs Webber started work at Norwich City before her husband, so he would be the one to have to go...That apart,  I don''t think Norwich City have ever had a finance director as such on the board, and I don''t see a problem with that, providing the CFO, or whatever their title is reports to the board, which they always have done.As to partners being unable to work together in a team, really? Now that is feudal, and is not my experience, and that includes FTSE-100 companies.

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We already have a ''Husband and Wife'' team, serving on the NCFC board....Which includes their Nephew ''in waiting'' who will eventually take over the club reins.....

The NCFC Board don''t see a problem in having another ''Husband and Wife'' team appointed to the Board.....Although, our Majority Shareholding Duo may require a bigger dining table at their Stowmarket Gaff.....

Let''s just see what the future holds......

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Correction: in the 1980s Norwich City had Ian Coutts as a finance director, or at least he was the director in charge of the club''s all-powerful Finance Committee.

More recently, Barry Skipper was pretty much the finance director at the club.

Any PLC must have a committee dealing with finances/remuneration. It would be highly improbable that that person would not be a full board member given the fundamental importance of the role in the business.

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I heard a rumour the club are considering Richard and Judy to handle its media output.

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="PurpleCanary"]
[quote user="Jim Smith"]I guess the key question in terms of how worrying it is is why? He could just have been offered a better paid job and decided to jump ship. The alternative is that there is some other reason he has decided to leave such as disagreements behind hmthe scenes or a realisisation he was fighting a losing battle under the self funding model.

He’d better not get a payoff if he’s quit though and Balls better not pocket another hefty sum for “standing in”[/quote]
He seems to have been put on gardening leave, which suggests he is either after a competitor job in football or there has been a bust-up behind the scenes. I doubt the self-funding model has anything to do with it. If anything that would be a satisfying challenge to make work. I suspect - not just because of this - that Webber will be promoted to the board.
[/quote]
Only a guess but I suspect Stone, assuming he stays in football, wants now to be a proper CEO, including taking on the football stuff, which was never going to happen with us while Webber or another sporting director was in place. The reshuffle certainly doesn''t diminish Webber''s power, far from it, and he may well soon join the board.
[/quote]
Just to add, Stone''s phrase about "...the time is now right for me to seek a new challenge..." is normally used when someone doesn''t have a new job lined up, as opposed to when they do. But this may be the exception.
[/quote]

I agree "seek" a new challenge would imply he hasn''t got another job lined up and therefore has been pushed out or is no longer happy at CR - otherwise why would he leave before he has another job to go to ? Whereas if it said "the time is right for me to move on to a new challenge..." or similar, that would imply he has a job that he''s going to. Although it could just be a hastily worded press release...

I''m amused about the comments that this message board is "orgasmic" about breaking the story first, I''d say some posters are a bit pleased but orgasmic is probably putting it rather strongly. Kudos to those who "broke" the story last night and you can''t deny that was well before it was mentioned on the main pinkun website...

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The boy Stone struck me as open, transparent and credible. He was the only member of the top table who emerged with his reputation enhanced at the last AGM.

In many ways he was most unlike the people he was working alongside. The rest of the directors are pretty much a closed-book. They rarely make any statements to the media, or communicate with fans, and only appear in public to make bigger fools of themselves at the AGM.

It is a rare thing for me not to hold a director of Norwich City Football Club in the utmost contempt, but for the boy Stone I would certainly make an exception.

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