1. Beware “smooth transitions”. We know Reed Elsevier’s transfer from Sir Crispin Davis to Ian Smith was “seamless” – because the media group said it would be when announcing his appointment a year ago. Mr Smith joined Sir Crispin on the board in January before taking over the chief executive role in March. It all looked smooth. But nothing can smooth over a transition to the wrong person.

2. Be careful about judging legacies. Sir Crispin bequeathed to Mr Smith a media company that he had restructured and realigned – and received plaudits for what he had achieved. But he also left the job unfinished, when he proved unable and (unsurprisingly) unwilling to sell the group’s business information division during a global financial crisis. Mr Smith then shocked the market with a summer capital raising that cast doubt on some of his predecessor’s big decisions. Now Erik Engstrom, who joined Sir Crispin’s inner circle in 2005, has taken charge. The temptation will be to assume the original rosy assessment was correct. But all this proves is that most corporate legacies are neither as durable as they first seem, nor as flimsy as they may later appear.