Backchat will soon be donning his big red cloak for Christmas. First on the stocking filler-list is the board of Groupama who need a telescope. The French insurer shares the same Minster Court building as Independent and has a fairly good view of the rival's boardroom from the floor below. Not that this worries Independent. When Phil Condon, Independent's deputy managing director, met Paul Picknett, Groupama's head of corporate affairs, in the lift recently he was delighted to hear Groupama were near but low down neighbours.
“That is where you belong and that is where you will always stay,” he joked.
To be fair, Backchat thought he would give Independent chief executive Michael Bright a pair of blinds. But are there any other gifts that other insurance chief executives need for Christmas? Backchat would like to hear.
