Your business is under the cosh. News from the outlying sales offices sounds bad, but it’s vague. Everybody is suffering. Your directors decide you have to bite the bullet. What little you know will have to be revealed to the market. You hedge the profit warning with a caveat about “poor visibility going forward”. The shares drop 15 per cent.

You’re pouring yourself a stiff drink and reflecting on how it could have been worse when the e-mail arrives from the Financial Services Authority, the UK’s regulator. Could you outline what you knew about trading and when? Could you have disclosed the bad news more quickly? And – while we’re about it – why didn’t you and the board hear about the problems sooner?