Given the time many of their managers have been in the business, you'd have thought that they would have guessed that it was too ambitious. It baffles me."
Retail management tends to follow what is termed the "wheel of retailing" cycle. During the early stages of a business, management identifies well with the store's customer base, but as the business grows it develops a head office function that becomes progressively more removed from customers. As a consequence, head office managers implement initiatives that make sense at head office level but have no customer benefit.
Justin King hopes his decision to axe 750 staff at Sainsbury's glass-and-steel head-quarters in London will turn the wheel forward and put the chain back in touch with its customers and on a more profitable footing. The rest of the high street will be watching to see if this can be done.