Household Successful Management THIS chapter contains three casehistories of named firms whose development since the war and more particularly in recent years demonstrates successful management. Rather than spoil the narratives with interposed comment they are set down factually. Success is a fugitive concept but readers of these stories will discern, it is hoped, many of the characteristics of good management which this book has been discussing in earlier chapters. LYONS CORNER HOUSES For forty years, Lyons Corner Houses successfully exploited the London catering market through a policy of creating restaurants within the West End where the public could obtain a luxury service of food at a price which brought this level of service within their reach for the first time. A Corner House consisted of a cluster of restaurants under a single roof with each restaurant cast in a similar pattern and setting out to provide the customers with a very wide choice of popular meals. Each Corner House started with two or three such restaurants and a total capacity of about 600 seats, but such was their popularity that each grew until at Coventry Street, for example, the restaurants were capable of seating in total 3,000 people at any one time. For many years the major problem was providing sufficient restaurant space to absorb the ever increasing demand. The situation did not at any time call for the applications of advanced managerial techniques as they are known today. Indeed, remembering that before the war a waitress's income was mainly derived from commission and tips it can be realized that a decision to employ ten waitresses more or less could not have any farreaching effects upon the economy of the business as a whole. 1948 was a time of recession and the Corner Houses entered into a bleak period of trading. On the one hand, the spending spree associated with the end of the Second World War, which had further improved profits, was over, and less people were eating out, while on the other hand food was still rationed, building work still tightly controlled, and above all labour costs of personal services like catering had risen disproportionately to general production costs in which laboursaving machinery was successfully used. The labour problems were not confined to increased costs arising from increased rates, but there was additionally an acute shortage of qualified technicians so essential if the extensive preWar menus were to be maintained. With the growth of television services the recession worsened, and those people who did wish to dine out quite clearly demonstrated that they required a more intimate atmosphere than that which was provided in restaurants fashioned many years previously. This was best exemplified by the popularity during this period of smaller restaurants such as those operating in the Soho area. It was clear that a new approach was needed if the Corner Houses were to be made attractive to a postWar generation of customers, and first and foremost as in any business a new marketing policy had to be determined. Financehome