Most executives are familiar with "kitchen sinking", when a new leader, inheriting a tricky situation, tries to get bad news and tough decisions out of the way as soon as possible. But sometimes, even throwing everything but the kitchen sink at a problem is not enough. That's when "pitch-rolling" comes in. This piece of cricket-inspired corporate jargon helps understand the way in which the UK's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has described his vision to "put Britain on a new path". Burnham has many grand plans but most won't kick in until 2030 or even later. Supporters hope this is long enough to prepare the ground — or "roll the pitch" — for some of the unpopular moves that will be required.
In the business world, pitch-rolling can be a useful tactic for new leaders who are riding high on honeymoon popularity but know that painful adjustments lie ahead. It still takes good execution, though — and sometimes a bit of luck — to see things through. Look at Citigroup chief executive Jane Fraser. She took over a bank in 2021 that was sprawling, underperforming and had, in her words, avoided making "hard decisions" that would cause "some near-term pain". Tens of thousands of job cuts later, Citi's latest profitability targets are still modest by industry standards, but its shares have outpaced most of its rivals' since she outlined her strategy.
The art of pitch-rolling is to be realistic without being too gloomy. Go too hard on the warnings, and morale can fall through the floor, as happened in the first months of Sir Keir Starmer's premiership. Back in the corporate sphere, Boeing boss Kelly Ortberg took the helm of the troubled planemaker in 2024, warning that "tough decisions" and "structural changes" were coming, but that the company would once again become an "industry leader". It's important to act as well as talk. Oil major BP shows what happens when execution doesn't match rhetoric. Its shares jumped when former chief executive Bernard Looney announced wildly ambitious plans to transform BP into a renewable energy giant and slashed its dividend. But the green initiatives showed little progress. By 2025, Looney had been fired — albeit for bad conduct rather than BP's performance — and his successor had torn up his entire strategy.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing