Greetings from the FT’s Africa Summit 2026.

This week’s board briefing starts with leadership woes at Lindt. The company has brought back former chief executive Dieter Weisskopf as an interim boss — a move that I argue raises questions about succession planning and the strength of its leadership bench.

Elsewhere we have top stories in a potential merger between Tesla and SpaceX, India’s biggest IPO and shareholder votes on climate change.

As always, if you want to catch up on recent briefings, you can explore the FT Infosys Board Network hub, where you’ll find links to the FT.com articles, research that we’ve referenced and our archive of briefings.

Do you have comments or suggestions for the newsletter? Send them to Andrew Hill at andrew.hill@ft.com or Kate Hodge at kate.hodge@ft.com 

Thanks for reading.

There is no sugar-coating this week’s announcement from Lindt that it has brought back former chief executive Dieter Weisskopf to help turn the Swiss chocolatier around.

Weisskopf replaces Adalbert Lechner, the man who replaced him in 2022. Weisskopf could be there as interim chief executive until the second quarter of next year while the board searches for another leader.

The literal application of the old Who lyric “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” is never good news. In the short term, it might reassure nervous shareholders — if nothing else, a former CEO is a known quantity — but it is at the least a sign that succession has gone awry, on two fronts.

First, the chief executive’s exit after four years suggests the board failed to pick the right person for the job back then. Second, the return of the old boss implies they didn’t have a solid plan in place to appoint a permanent successor. 

In perhaps the most famous recent case of CEO reflux, Procter & Gamble was obliged to recall legendary ex-CEO AG Lafley to the bridge in 2013, four years after he had retired amid much fanfare. P&G was supposed to be a blue-chip exemplar of orderly succession practice but Lafley took over from Bob McDonald, the man he had himself helped appoint.

Lechner has struggled recently in the face of some wrenching outside pressures, from volatile cocoa prices to this summer’s European heatwave. The share price has duly melted, drooping by more than a quarter this year.

The Lindt board must take some blame for the messy resumption of the Weisskopf era. But Weisskopf, who presumably gave the nod to Lechner, former head of Lindt’s German operation, in 2022 should share it.

Lindt, which traditionally hires its leaders internally, may now be forced to look outside for a permanent successor. Whoever it is will have to dispel concern that Lindt’s leadership bench is as brittle as one of its famous chocolate Easter bunnies.

“Almost unnoticed, Africa has become an urban story,” the FT writes this week.

The population of Africa has jumped from 228mn people in 1950, to 1.6bn people today. About 33mn Africans lived in cities in 1950 — the figure is now 670mn.

But it is not clear what this huge demographic shift means.

“A big question for Africa over the coming decades is whether rapid urbanisation will eventually lead to faster growth and higher incomes. Or alternatively, will overstretched cities with a desperate lack of infrastructure and few formal jobs become epicentres of poverty and popular unrest?”

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My top FT picks

What Elon Musk stands to gain from a Tesla-SpaceX merger Governance: A merger of Elon Musk’s listed companies has some logic, but other shareholders might end up with less influence than they have today It’s time to give individual shareholders direct votes on climate change ESG: As corporates and fund managers retreat on green commitments, we must use technology to give savers and investors a say on policies affecting the planet Ambani looks to pull off India’s biggest IPO Going public: Jio Platforms aims to list at $107bn valuation amid stock market downturn, tougher competition and goading from Elon Musk Accountants fear £1.2bn hit from UK plan to exempt midsized groups from audits Audit: Proposals apply to companies with revenue of less than £54mn and could affect as much as £1.24bn in annual fees

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1. Business in society survey 2026 report | Bentley University and Gallup This research, based on interviews with 3,270 Americans, looked at the public’s attitudes towards corporates. Executive pay is “the lowest-rated area of business performance”. Some 84 per cent of respondents said “it is somewhat or extremely important for businesses to avoid a major pay gap between CEOs and average employees”. But just 15 per cent felt businesses were doing well at this.

2. 2026 global CEO outlook | KPMG Bosses are feeling bullish about their business, but less so the global economy, according to this study, which garnered insights from 1,400 chief executives. Some 84 per cent of respondents were confident about their organisation’s three-year growth prospects, but just 65 per cent were confident about the global economy — “the lowest it has been since 2021.”

3. 2026 UK proxy season review: CEO pay policy revamp | ISS-Corporate In the 2026 proxy year, 49 companies in the FTSE 100 put forward a new executive remuneration policy — and 15 of those were put forward before the current agreement lapsed. This continues a trend seen in 2025. “The figures suggest that more boards are reassessing pay structures as they seek to remain competitive in an increasingly contested market for executive talent,” the report says. Interestingly, shareholders do not seem to mind.