Bolshie investors love lining up non-executive directors, reminding them whose interests they are hired to look after, and telling them how to run their businesses. We hear it all the time.

What we hear less is the other side of the debate – non-executive directors’ message to investors. Speaking out unprompted isn’t really the path to success in the directors’ club, nor is taking potshots at investors who, at the end of the day, own the company and wear its profits and losses.