From The Bookseller:
Waterstones m.d. James Daunt yesterday (2nd March) emphasised the necessity of giving power to individual store managers in bookshop chains, calling the “crushing” consistency exemplified by chain stores like W H Smith “god awful”.
. . . .
Daunt said yesterday it was “absolutely” necessary to devolve power to the individuals running the chain’s shops – the alternative being to crush shops’ independent, entrepreneurial spirit. His assessment follows renewed attention in the wider press over Waterstones’ unbranded shops in Rye, Southwold and Harpenden. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme earlier this week, Daunt defended the opening of the shops saying “part the reason we did it is to convince our own booksellers that they have the autonomy that they do have”.
“If you run a chain – I have 280 shops – how do you bring that individuality into each of those individual places?” he asked Monocle’s audience. “The answer is you absolutely have to devolve power to the individuals in the shops, to the managers, in particular, and to the teams, and get them to curate, to merchandise. You must help to do that in an attractive way. But you must not impose uniformity or you kill that spirit. As indeed with – and because I can be rude about them – W H Smith and that god awful uniformity, that crushing consistency they have; we need to do the exact opposite.”
The event struck an optimistic note as Daunt, fresh from turning around Waterstones, which recently made a profit for the first time in five years, remarked the biggest surprise for Waterstones had been to see growth in children’s books by 25% – stemming mainly from YA. “They are the future readers – and they are apparently also the people on SnapChat and doing all the social media,” he said.
Link to the rest at The Bookseller
Good to see at least one of them with a clue. Too many at the top think they know it all and need control of every step.