The human touch is key

Pubcos don't do enough to help licensees, we said last week following our annual survey of life at the sharp end. And what they do is often distinctly unhelpful.

Pubcos are sensitive to these views of MA readers - and one way they try to respond is by investing in the training of their business development managers and operations managers. Last week saw a group comprising some of the country's best BDMs and Ops people discuss the way they do their jobs. They'd been brought together by the Association of Licensed Multiple Operators (ALMR), whose chief executive Nick Bish is passionate about the crucial role played out at this level of pub management. The pubcos who released people for the seminar feel the same way and were prepared to pick up a not insignificant tab for the day.

As you'd hope, with an elite group such as this, that the quality of thinking and the shrewd understanding of how the pub trade works shone through. These were people any licensee would be glad to work with.

And, let's face it, lucky to work with, too. For the industry is not awash with good BDMs, as the Parliamentary pubco report of a few years back scathingly pointed out. Licensees are more likely to have less enlightened BDMs breathing down their necks or feeling their collars. In fact, there's just as big a recruitment crisis for BDMs as there is with licensees.

More training, and more support for the ALMR's Ops Academy initiative, is clearly an essential commitment from across the spectrum of pub companies. We desperately need more BDMs who can achieve rapport with licensees and inspire them to run better businesses.

But it's not enough to just invest in training. Pubco bosses need to look hard at the new systems and structures they're forcing on their BDMs in their quest to create "efficiencies" and cut costs.

There's a danger that too much "tick-box" management is coming into the trade, and too much management by lowest common denominator.

What these systems ignore is the importance of the human touch. At its best, the trade is all about the interplay of personalities. If these are stifled by laptop management, pubcos will never create better BDMs - or better pubs.