London Briefing Fiona WalshEven by the City's unsentimental standards, the speed with which Lord Browne at BP has been relegated from hero to zero has been little short of stunning.
Just weeks ago, investors were up in arms at the enforced departure of the oil giant's chief executive in 2008, when he turns 60 and reaches BP's mandatory retirement age for executive directors.
But now it is starting to look doubtful that Lord Browne will be spending even his 59th birthday in the chief executive's chair. Those shareholders who a couple of months ago were clamouring for his reign to be extended are now muttering darkly about early retirement.
Behind the remarkable reversal in his fortunes is a catalogue of corporate disasters that has engulfed the oil giant, from serious safety issues to allegations of price-fixing.
The latest blow came on Monday, when the group was forced to announce that production from its crucial Thunder Horse oil and gas field in the Gulf of Mexico will not resume until mid-2008, some 18 months behind schedule.
The deep-sea drilling operations were badly hit by Hurricane Dennis in 2005 and, since then, BP has undertaken massive repairs. As many as 700 people have been working to restore production, clocking up an astonishing three million "man hours" on the repairs.
News of the further delay to the resumption of production saw oil prices spike higher on world energy markets and heightened the pressure on BP, which is already under fire over a series of safety issues.
There include a fire at its Texas city refinery last year in which 15 people died and many others were injured, triggering a grand jury investigation in the United States.
Despite paying hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to the victims and their families, BP is facing what threatens to be lengthy and costly legal action over the disaster.
On top of that, the group has also been hit by leaks in its Alaskan pipeline, which forced the shutdown of its Prudhoe Bay field in August, and is also being investigated by the US authorities over allegations of price-fixing.
The catalogue of disasters has raised questions of whether there may be a systemic failure at the heart of Britain's biggest company.
In an attempt to quell such fears, BP has launched a massive overhaul of its worldwide operations. Such is the scale of the review that it will take between five and 10 years to complete.
Lord Browne will not be around at the group to see the results. The recent public wrangling over his retirement date may have won the BP chief executive another 10 months in the job, but he will still have to retire by the end of 2008.
But the mood may be changing in the City, which just two months ago welcomed the extension of Lord Browne's tenure. Although the corporate overhaul now underway has quietened some critics, there are others who believe it would be in the company's best interests for Lord Browne to step down now.
At the moment, he looks to have the board's support, although any further bad news would swiftly put paid to that.
BP's current difficulties could have far-reaching implications for future management. The group, chaired by former Irish attorney general Peter Sutherland, has made it clear it wants to choose a new chief executive from within its own ranks. But if Lord Browne's reputation has been so comprehensively tarnished in such a short space of time, will the board want to anoint a successor who shared the same watch? It may be that when the time comes to make the choice, only an outsider will be enough to satisfy investors that things are really changing.
Aviva blames web sales for job cuts
The trend towards internet shopping is having a serious impact on Aviva's insurance operations, particularly motor insurance, where 50 per cent of policies are now sold direct to customers online.
Increasing popularity of online insurance comparison sites such as Confused.com have fuelled the trend, allowing customers to become their own insurance brokers by calling up a wide range of quotes within minutes.
Aviva has blamed the migration online for its shock decision to axe 4,000 jobs, including hundreds of staff at its call centres, explaining that the phones are simply not ringing often enough.
The big job cuts, which affect one in 10 staff at Aviva's Norwich Union division, brought outrage from the unions. They will save the group as much as £250 million (€371 million) a year, but come only a month after it reported a surge of more than 25 per cent in first half profits, to £1.6 billion. Union leaders were also swift to point out that Aviva is exporting around 1,000 of the jobs to India.
Fiona Walsh writes for the Guardian newspaper in London
