DIARY OF A TAKEOVER - THE STORY OF RBS AND NATWEST

I’m Peter Smith, ex Procurement Director, past President of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, and Managing Editor of...

(I have now fininshed the daily diary entries from the year 2000 - now a few more general pieces I wrote at the time, starting with this...

Thinking about the conversation with Mark, and the new structure, it feels as though the die is now cast. Barring miracles, I am going,...

I have an early meeting at Lothbury with Andrew, the Andersen partner who is leading their supply chain e-ventures group. He is a very...

We have an integration meeting. ("PIST- Purchasing Integration Steering Team". My acronym.) NatWest staff are getting fed up with the...

Meeting first thing with my IT colleagues and ICL to discuss the various projects we have on the go with them. It is a difficult...

I'm in Paris for the "E-Services" 2000 conference, with around 1000 other delegates. It is the sort of event I would have wanted to go to...

The RBS people are around all day, but the head of purchasing leaves at lunchtime. I seem to be making most of the running in terms of...

The RBS integration team are down today. Alan, to whom the head of purchasing (HoP) reports, arrives. He is a 50-ish, grey haired...

I open my Times on the 6.54 am train from Sunningdale as usual to see the headline in the Business section, "Sandler's £700,000 payout...

The Times reports that the Governor of the Bank of Scotland (Sir John Shaw) might go; apparently there is dissatisfaction with his lack...

I call a meeting to give some of my team a bit of a hard time; it's not their fault, but we are having problems with getting important...

There is a strange atmosphere at work at the moment. It feels like the calm before the storm; we are really in limbo now. Virtually all...

Today I am combining working at home with inspecting suitable schools for daughter. Mid-morning, I ring Bernard to see how he got on in...

Royal Bank hold their shareholders’ meeting this morning to approve the deal. This is the very last chance we have of some incredible...

On a beautiful Saturday morning like this it is hard to understand why I am voluntarily sitting in a dreary hotel meeting room in...

I work at home in the morning. Draft my suitably rude response to Chris Wathen and do a note to my team with feedback from the RBS guy's...