Courage and passion for detail can help Morrisons see off rivals: Greg Wright

He was irascible, funny, dismissive of the City, analysts and journalists, and unquestionably true to himself. It's likely he would have found a kindred spirit in Rami Baitiéh, who took the helm at Morrisons last year. Sir Ken was passionate about customer service and finding out about the commercial challenges and successes of each store. Even as chairman, he wasn't scared to get his hands dirty. He was once spotted rooting inside the bins behind a Morrisons’ store to establish whether fresh food was being wasted.

This approach finds an echo in the philosophy of the current CEO, who says he wants to shift Morrisons’ culture, without changing the DNA. He believes that front-line staff have a key role in helping to shape Morrisons’ strategy.

"When I visit a store I will speak to the cashier, the butcher and the fishmonger and every time I try to give them some information and training,'' Mr Baitiéh told me.

"I am interested in people; colleagues, customers, shareholders, the community and the state. I am ready to put all my knowledge and my time and my energy to achieve customer satisfaction."

If you want to know what customers are grumbling about, a good place to start is the checkout staff. Under a new system implemented by Morrisons, these staff, in effect, have a hotline to the CEO so he can react to what customers are telling them.

Mr Baitiéh told me: "Every week, on Monday, I've got a list of the five most frequent comments made by customers to our cashiers. In just one week, the cashiers recorded 1,500 comments from customers. So when, for example, customers complain about lack of availability, we ask the cashiers to ask the customer where these problems are exactly."

This means that if, for example, a customer complains about the lack of availability of pet food, the cashiers are encouraged to ask them if this applies to specific pets.

"It's granular, so we know exactly where we need to act,’’ Mr Baitiéh added. “The eyes are everywhere, I have ambassadors in the cashiers. And the cashiers don't have any political reason not to tell me the truth.”

Much of Mr Baitiéh’s approach to leadership seems to stem from his time as a Colonel of the French Air Force, where the phrase “officers eat last” left a deep impression on him; it’s a reflection of the self sacrifice at the heart of true leadership. Sir Ken, who carried out National Service in Germany in the early 1950s, would also have been familiar with the discipline, courage and rituals of military life. Sir Ken could certainly be bold, as anyone who witnessed his acquisition of Safeway in 2004 can testify.

Courage combined with an eye for detail could well be the qualities needed to help Morrisons shake off competition from its fierce discount rivals Aldi and Lidl.

Greg Wright is the deputy business editor of The Yorkshire Post