UK: The rolling contract.

As a practice, the rolling contract, with its guaranteed pay-off, makes failure highly profitable and shows little sign of abating.

When Liam Strong finally departed as chief executive of the ailing retail conglomerate, Sears, in April, the immediate and instinctive question from the press and shareholders was 'What's the pay-off?' In Strong's case, around half a million, a sum that raised few eyebrows. The lavish pay-off has become deeply ingrained in British corporate life, as much a part of the executive package as private healthcare, a pension and a chauffeured Jag.