Must admit the headline in The Times today “Warships propel Babcock to ‘Boring’ class of its own” brought a smile to my face. Peter Rogers, Babcock’s CEO, had said that the key was his company’s ‘boring predictability’.
Any reader of Holway’s musings since 1992 will know that I lay claim to the definition of ‘Boring’ as applied to company performance. Ie exactly the usage Rogers suggests in ‘boring predictability’.
It all started in 1992 when the then technology correspondent of the FT, Alan Cane, asked for my views on Admiral’s results. My comment “Admiral’s performance is boringly consistent” got printed next day as “Admiral in Boring”. So grew Holway’s Boring Awards which were only given to companies with 10 or more years of uninterrupted EPS growth. Admiral got the first but relinquished it when they were acquired for £1.4b by CMG in 2000. (I remember one wag suggesting CMG had paid £400m for Admiral – about what it was actually worth in those crazy dot.com days!– and £1b for the Boring Award!)
I have since given Boring Awards to Sage and Capita. Indeed they are still the only recipients and still hold their awards after 24+ years of uninterrupted earnings growth.
In the age of Twitter and Facebook, I wonder if I will ever be able to give a Boring Award again?