Best line -

From the desk of Martin Lukes, to his ex-wife upon learning that she had joined the board of a rival company:

FROM: MLukes.MBE@a-bglobal.com on 02/07/07
TO: Jenny.Withers@hotmail.com
SUBJECT: what a turn up!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Jens - Did I ever share with you my take on non-execs? They’re like bidets - no one knows what they’re for, but they add a touch of class!!! …

Lucy Kellaway pens a weekly fictional column at the Financial Times that follows the hapless Martin Lukes, an incompetent and completely oblivious executive at a-b global. The weekly installments are in the form of emails that he sends and posts to his company blog. He is the cringe-inducingly hilarious in his egomaniacal splendor. Some of his recent exploits: he was awarded the honor of MBE and demanded that all his stationary, business cards, and email signature include the MBE title, while at the same time getting rid of all printers and paper in the office to help a-b global “go green”; he thinks he’s in on the company’s plan to be bought out by a private equity group but is confused when they are having meetings behind his back; he’s about to marry an motivational office singer and expense the wedding. He is my favorite part of the Thursday paper.

It’s a fun read that is unfortunately not very available on the FT website (try a site search for Martin Lukes and some non-gate protected entries will come up). See, who says that business papers have to be all numbers and dullness?