Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, has been cleared of wrongdoing over the oil for food scandal in Iraq, but he remains under pressure. Some now regard Mr Annan as a weak leader who failed to prevent the scandal. He is not the only high-profile leader under pressure at the moment; last week, Phil Purcell, Morgan Stanley's chairman, responded to continuing criticism of his leadership of the bank by firing several top executives.

Is there a wider crisis in business leadership? Two recent studies suggest so. In an article in the latest issue of the Harvard Business Review, David Rooke of Harthill Consulting and William Torbert, professor at the Carroll School of Management in Boston, find that 55 per cent of leaders are associated with below-average corporate performance. Only 15 per cent of the leaders they studied over 25 years showed a consistent ability to manage innovation and organisational change.