POLO0105592
POL00105592
Message
From: Alice Perkins?
on behalf of — Alice Perkins! __ .
Sent: 27/03/2012 17:54:07
To: Alwen Lyons! “
Subject: Material for tomorrow’
Thank you very much for arranging a practical solution to the forest of paper which had come off our
printer at JCA. V helpful.
I have sat and read a lot of this material now.
I don't have the 2 page key issues paper with me but here is a heads-up of where my thinking has got to.
There are 2 key issues for tomorrow - substance and handling.
On the substance, I am now wondering how far any of the external reports to which we refer in this
context are really helpful to us. They seem to my untutored eye to range far more widely than the points
at issue in these cases. So I need to understand better what is and isn't relevant here as well as how
robust it is.
As you said, the Ismay report to Dave Smith is very relevant. He makes some good points eg we have
decided NOT to pursue some cases for a variety of reasons - have we talked about this? Should we? And
have we benchmarked ourselves against other comparable retailers? Potentially very strong point.
On the wider points re contracts, training, support etc, are we really convinced we are doing everything
we should? what about the emphasis in training on sales - is this to the detriment of basic
accounting/comp1iance?
On handling, I_am interested in the comments on Computer Weekly. I'd also like a view on what kind of
person Brian Glick is - ie is he trustworthy? Is he the sort of person we could have an off the record
conversation with? Can we get a view on that eg from Gartner? Before the meeting?
I have noted Ismay’s arguments against an independent review. But if we follow this line, how will we
ever satisfy reasonable critics that we are unafraid to look at this. Yes, a report would have to be
disclosed - there would be no point doing it otherwise - but if we are so confident of our ground what
are we afraid of? we would need to handle it carefully of course but we could get help with that, perhaps
with JA's help.
That's it for now - I just thought it might be helpful to give you advance warning of where my thinking
is.
Alice
POL-0104609