Day 202 - 11 Jan 96 - Page 35
1 year in which we are into, which we are going on the best
2 indicators at the time; thereafter, consultation with the
3 managers of what we can achieve is our target. However,
4 throughout the year, things happen, so competitors'
5 restaurants open close by and volume drops; then targets
6 are readjusted. This is a way of evaluating how well the
7 restaurant performs financially. However, it is not the
8 absolute -- it is our target, it is our budget that we are
9 aiming to achieve, but it is not -----
10
11 Q. That refers to the table where two out of the five stores
12 have failed to achieve their targets?
13 A. Yes, and it is in my assessment that the other two
14 could have achieved that with better financial control.
15 However, if there were other circumstances there that may
16 have meant they have done a very good job, despite having
17 two competitors open close by. Therefore, I am pleased
18 with that figure.
19
20 Q. Moving on to people development, referring to
21 Mr. Skehel: "Despite your reputation as a bit of a tyrant,
22 I believe we have taken some commendable initiatives in the
23 area for management development." Then the next paragraph
24 down: "You have tied most of your managers down well with
25 golden objectives, although I hope you have learned through
26 your mistakes with Mike Buckley."
27
28 Do you know why Mr. Skehel at this time had a reputation
29 for being a bit of a tyrant?
30 A. I think Neil is very dedicated towards his job and
31 pursues things very assiduously and he is an extremely
32 competent person to have working for you; and I think it
33 just shows how frank the reviews are, really, that we can
34 sort of point this out to him. It is just simply that he
35 sees a task and goes after it and tries to achieve the
36 result.
37
38 Q. Which gets him a bit of a reputation?
39 A. And, as you can see, because of that, assessing
40 Mr. Skehel's performance is something that I saw was worthy
41 of note and worthy of action, as was the issue in
42 Colchester of quality blindness. So it was something that
43 was incumbent upon me to point out. Unfortunately, all
44 employees that you have are not perfect, each have
45 weaknesses, and that is identifying an area for Neil to
46 work upon.
47
48 Q. That concludes with regard to crew turnover. "You still
49 have a long way to go to reduce it....."
50
51 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it finishes over the page.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: Sorry, I apologise -- "to reduce it to beneath 100
54 per cent in the stores." It then it goes on about how he
55 got four grade As on training audit -- presumably for four
56 different stores, does that mean?
57 A. Yes, yes.
58
59 Q. Right. So, despite stores reaching grade A on training
60 procedures ---
