Tim Martin: small improvements and common sense

Albert Einstein is regarded as one of the cleverest humans in history, although his famous 'theory of relativity' might have been more useful if it had explained how to get on with your relatives.

More remarkable is the fact that Einstein said that his trying to understand the universe (which he did better than anyone else) was like a chicken trying to understand him. In other words, Einstein was acutely aware of the limits of his own intelligence.

Arguably the greatest businessman in history is Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, by far the world's largest retailer.

Sam was aware of the dangers to his business, of individuals overrating themselves, and famously said: "You don't need a small ego to work here, but you'd better pretend you have."

Sam invented the weekly 'Saturday morning meeting', to which employees working in the Wal-Mart Stores, store managers and area managers were invited.

His idea was to try to concentrate the business on lots of small improvements emanating from the shop floor, rather than the normal approach of decisions emanating from remote boardrooms, which turn out to be impractical or plain daft.

Wetherspoon has tried to adopt this democratic approach, with our own equivalent of the Saturday morning meeting, during which we debate suggestions from those who work in our pubs.

Sense test​

Fixing small things and making small improvements are more important to a company than the more grandiose schemes which might attract the attention of the media or the stock market.

We also try to ensure that big ideas emanating from the board or senior managers are subjected to a 'sense test', by being put forward at our Saturday morning meeting (actually, it's on a Thursday at Wetherspoon). This helps us to prevent my, and others', flights of fancy from being adopted just because we're directors.

Wetherspoon, many other pub companies and individual licensees have complained bitterly about the continuing plethora of petty rules and regulations affecting pubs, emanating from the government.

I recently wrote, for example, about the 'entrapment' policies, whereby police are required to employ 15 or 16-year-olds, who go into pubs, under police supervision, to try to get served.

If they are served, heavy fines are levied on bar staff — and there is a serious risk of the pub losing its licence and its ability, therefore, to continue to trade. This type of activity by the police and other authorities is banned in most democracies — and is banned for most crimes in Britain, since it is unfair.

Many commentators have expressed disbelief that this sort of pressure is being put on pubs, when thousands have closed in the last few years.

Barmy rules​

The reason for the large number of barmy rules that are harming not only pubs, but also a variety of other businesses and institutions, stems from political control-freakery and lack of consultation.

In turn, the lack of consultation is the result of the belief, of those at the top of the government, that they know what's best for us. Unfortunately, they have not adopted the philosophies of Einstein or Walton.

If the pub business is anything to go by, we are desperately in need of proper supervision of laws and regulations before they go in the statute books, to try to weed out the pottiest of the ideas and also to introduce better ideas that might be adopted to everyone's advantage.

The brightest politicians will be strongly aware that they have limited knowledge about how businesses work, and will be keen to avoid adopting a course that will harm important social institutions, such as pubs, which are also important sources of employment and tax revenue that benfit society as a whole.

If a sensible approach had been adopted, and licensees and the public had been consulted about the best methods of dealing with binge drinking and trouble in town and city centres, what would have been the outcome?

Tangible improvements​

It's difficult to say precisely, but there are good examples throughout the country of 'best bar none' and 'pubwatch' schemes, which work incredibly well.

These schemes are promoted by individual local authorities and police forces, with meetings held regularly, attended by town-centre licensees and representatives from the authorities, where problems are discussed and plans created for dealing with difficult issues.

In some areas, licensees and the police are connected by email or a paging system, so that all pubs in an area, as well as the police, are aware of the sources of trouble or potential trouble.

Lists of individuals, banned for poor behaviour, are also circulated. It may sound mundane, but it works extremely well and has resulted in tangible improvements in behaviour in many instances.