London — CEO John Fallon needs to show he has a plan to navigate Pearson through the sinking sands of its main markets when the world’s biggest education company reports full-year results. Shareholders, reeling from Pearson’s latest profit warning, are calling on the board to review both Fallon’s role as CEO and its overall structure. A warning in January, sparked by US students opting to rent textbooks at lower prices rather than buy them, sent shares in the 173-year-old British firm down 30% in a day. Fallon’s fifth such warning during his four-year tenure will mean a dividend cut for the first time in more than two decades and has damaged his credibility with analysts and investors, who are awaiting Pearson’s full-year results on Friday. But while some question Fallon’s ability to see the scale of the challenge ahead and are now urging action, there is little consensus on what Pearson, which sold the Financial Times and a stake in The Economist magazine in 2015, should do next. P...
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