If Maria didn't have sufficient expertise in the marketing area...

If Maria didn't have sufficient expertise in the marketing area and was happy to be (& rightly) guided by those that have and, ultimately, further guided into litigation by CDY's legal advisers - then to me, she needs to give the big "heave ho" to those advisers....most particularly the legal ones.

On all the information we now have, it seems pretty clear litigation was not the way to go. I find it crazy the lawyers would recommend litigation under these commercial circumstances. To me, it smells more of legal self interest than it does of a good and solid legal argument.

The above example is one reason why I believe we shouldn't be structuring Maria's performance bonus in the way it has been - especially given the level of her salary. As a CEO and Managing Director of a public company with many years of experience, I would not expect this level of what appears to be more of commercial naivity than of straight neglect. I am hugely disappointed, but none of us are perfect, so I hope like hell Maria has learnt from this.

That all said, I am a believer in the big picture and what CDY is now starting to achieve commercially and what hopefully lays ahead, so I will not be panicking unnecessarily and running for the exits based on this issue.