Reckitt Benckiser: Kerpowed by Kapoor One momentous question blots out all considerations strategic, economic or geopolitical for senior executives of a multinational following regime change. It is: "will I be cool with the new boss?" For Liz Doherty, chief financial officer of household products group Reckitt Benckiser, the answer has sadly transpired to be No. "Liz and I have agreed that RB's and her way of working are not as well matched as either of us would like," said chief executive Rakesh Kapoor, toe-curlingly. The scope of a legacy lieutenant such as Ms Doherty to agree to disagree on the appropriateness of her management style would have been limited. She joined when Bart Becht, Mr Kapoor's predecessor, was already edging towards the exit. Adrian Hennah, CFO of healthcare group Smith & Nephew, will replace her. Mr Kapoor thinks he is the bee's knees. Even if Mr Hennah was a duffer, he would have the advantage of being a duffer personally approved by the boss. Martin Deboo of Investec points out that incoming chief executives appointed new abacus rattlers at both Premier Foods and Unilever. This, plus a big payout, should console Ms Doherty, formerly of Tesco and Brambles. The job of Reckitt FD shades into that of a chief operating officer required to help tackle such challenges as sluggish developed markets growth and declining profits from a non-core drugs division. The ousting of Ms Doherty thus signals her employability to chief executives who like the FD to restrict his or her activities to number crunching. Which is most of them. Mr Kapoor has, meanwhile, shown he has a prerequisite for his own job: ruthlessness.