Specsavers. Half goes to whoever could walk out.
Specsavers paid 258 million quid to the people running its shops and 12 million to the family that owns it. That is the model working as designed.
THE GIST ON SPECSAVERS: "Specsavers"
Who gets paid at Specsavers?
Last year, Specsavers paid £258 million to the people running its shops. It paid the family that owns the company £12 million. More than 20 times as much went to the shop floor as to the owners. And that's the model working exactly as designed, because the person running the eye test can always go down the road.
It's a £4.3 billion business. Profits were up nearly a quarter last year to half a billion. It has 1,200 stores across the UK and does more than half of the NHS eye tests in the country.
How is each store owned?
Every single store is a 50/50 joint venture, half owned by the optometrist or audiologist who runs it. They're shareholders in the shop with their name on it.
Why does it have to work that way?
Because the eye test must be carried out by someone on the professional register. The qualification takes years and it belongs to the individual, not the company. You can't replace the staff in a fortnight. They can leave, take the legal ability to run the business with them and set up down the road.
So Specsavers don't really franchise. They just give them half.
What's the lesson?
Compare that with any other shop on the high street. The person running it gets a salary and, if they're lucky, a bonus, because the job can be taught to the next person in a month. No one's deciding to be generous or mean. They're pricing the same thing: what it would cost them if you left.
Your share of anything was never set by how hard you worked or how loyal you were. It's set by what walks out of the door with you. Most of us spend our careers making ourselves more useful to one company and less useful to everyone else. That feels like security, but it's the opposite.
Should more jobs come with a share of the business?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
How is Specsavers structured?
Every store is a 50/50 joint venture with the optometrist or audiologist who runs it.
Why does Specsavers give half away?
Because the eye test must be done by someone on the professional register, and the qualification belongs to the individual. They can leave and set up down the road.
What is the wider point?
Your share is set by what walks out of the door with you, not by how hard you worked or how loyal you were.
See you on the next one.
What should the next one be? Suggest a topic for Huw to explain
The conversation
Comments
Nothing here yet. Start the conversation: Huw reads every comment before it is published.
