Bosses must box clever to seal deals in this climate

But he cannot be blamed for being slightly on edge after DS Smith - the packaging company of which he has been chairman for all of 13 days - struck out today with the biggest purchase in its history.

Stock market valuations have fluctuated wildly in the past 12 months as confidence levels have swooped and soared. But one value has emerged as a constant - the price of a failed foray onto the acquisition trail is the head of the chairman.

Only last week, Alf Duch-Pedersen fell on his sword at G4S in the aftermath of the security firm's failed £5 billion bid for Danish cleaning giant ISS last autumn. The inevitable took a little longer at the Prudential but Harvey McGrath walked the plank just before Christmas. He was carrying the can for the failed attempt to buy AIG's Asian business AIA for $35.5 billion.

Boards are not being rewarded for their boldness just now.

Even bosses with a good track record can't always cut it, as Nick Buckles at G4S found to his cost.

Balance sheets are strong, but investors are still not convinced that firms should be making big strategic moves when the economy is so fragile and end-markets such as the eurozone could deteriorate further at any moment. Even Chinese growth is coming off the boil.

So, chief executives intent on doing deals have to adopt a safety-first approach. In less than two years as DS Smith's chief executive, Miles Roberts has injected some excitement into the soporific world of cardboard boxes.

His £1.3 billion swoop on the packaging arm of SCA of Sweden looks well thought out. Consumer goods groups such as Mars who use his boxes in Britain want DS Smith to operate further afield. Standard Life, the group's largest shareholder, is already on side for the rights issue. Roberts even argues that, at a cost of £47 million, he got a good deal on advisers' fees because investment bankers haven't got much to do at the moment.

The chairman, at least, has nothing to lose. Davis only stepped up to chair DS Smith this month when his predecessor Peter Johnson retired early because of illness. He is already chairman of two other companies - bookmaker William Hill and Wolseley, the builders' merchant.

That's just as well. Acquisitions to burnish the boss's ego are never a good idea. But there comes a point when companies cannot simply hike dividends and sit on their hands.

BAE Systems shipyards sail into uncertain waters

News that BAE Systems has called in the consultants to consider the future of its three shipyards is indicative of a wider malaise at the defence giant.

The facilities at Portsmouth and on the River Clyde in Glasgow have proud pasts but what happens once the Government's order for two giant aircraft carriers is completed in the next few years is a moot point.

BAE's chief executive Ian King has already responded to a slowdown in defence spending by announcing 3000 job losses last September, hitting aircraft sites in Lancashire and East Yorkshire hardest. Coming in the midst of the party conference season, that announcement pricked the notion of a manufacturing-led recovery.

Analysts predict there are more cuts to come at BAE, whose shares have dropped 12% in a year.

Shareholders grumble that it is a company of two halves. It has built up a valuable franchise in America as one of the Pentagon's largest foreign suppliers. But at home, growth is harder to come by and it is plagued by political sensitivities.

A break-up has been muttered about by investors but the pressure to act is not high.

There are signs that even the management aren't sure of the way ahead. The strategy to sell its American platform solutions business was abandoned a year ago.

The shipyards could be the next nettle that King must grasp - or make that a thistle, if Alex Salmond, on his crusade to win Scottish independence, weighs into the debate.