Greene King Pub Partners, the leased and tenanted pub division of Greene King, is claiming a first for the leased and tenanted sector by sending all its business development managers (BDMs) on post-graduate training in multi-site skills.
It will be done in partnership with Chris Edger, former HR director at Mitchells & Butlers and now professor of multi-unit leadership at Birmingham City Business School (BCBS).
The company said driving sales, developing the consumer offer, and taking market share are the cornerstones of Pub Partners’ strategy going forward, and this will be aided by the new training programme.
Twenty BDMs will begin the process this year by training in Multi-unit Leadership and Strategy at post graduate diploma level with BCBS.
The qualification will include practice-based modules including: customers and strategy; service leadership; financial performance; operation improvement and innovation. It will take 15 months to succeed, with some progressing to MSc level.
All BDMs will receive a development plan including leadership, management and commercial skills training on top of their foundation induction programme and alongside the post graduate diploma.
Simon Longbottom, managing director of Pub Partners, said: “BDMs need ‘Premiership’ skills so that every time they meet a licensee and discuss business improvement tactics, they’re adding more value to help licensees make the right choices so they make more money.
"The post graduate programme, which is a first for the leased and tenanted sector, provides our BDMs with the highest competence in multi-site retailing, diagnosing the problems and coaching and guiding which delivers better results for licensees.
“I’m delighted to join forces with Professor Edger who leads the field in multi-site retailing and I’m confident we will deliver the highest calibre of training. This will enable us to attract and retain the right licensees and see them succeeding and competing in earnest with the supermarkets and other pubs who just cannot offer anything close to a proper pub and a great experience.
“Our strategy combines a whole strand of initiatives launched in our business this year to help us and our licensees stay ahead of our competition. We’ve launched customer experience surveys to help our licensees understand and interpret their customers’ perception of their pub and how they can improve. We’re also working with a large number of licensees on value, service and quality contracts where we agree a step by step plan of improvements to make their overall retail offer the best there is in return for further support."
Edger said: “It is our aim that our exclusively designed practice-based programme will deliver enhanced levels of knowledge, skills and capability for all the business development managers in their business to help them help their licensees.”
