I'm hoping there are a few eyebrows being raised in
bars and boardrooms across the country with the news in today's Morning Advertiser that Novus Leisure - the privately owned bar and club group - reported revenues from pre-bookings of over £50 million.

I don't know about you but I'm excited about this news. It proves that people are no longer just walking in a pub or bar and hoping that they get good food, drink, service, value and atmosphere. They actually search online for it first.

It also proves that pre-bookings are flying. From function rooms, venue hire to table bookings, people still enjoy going out and eating but they're not going to the first pub or restaurant they pass. I would love to find out how much pubs are gaining now at the expense of restaurants as more and more pubs get savvy about food and marketing online. But that's for another day.

Today is Novus Leisure day. How did they do it?
We started the online function room revolution back in 2001 with Citypublife so, for what it's worth, here's my take. I would be interested in yours email me here. 

• Culture:
• they will have shared Organisational Goals
• they will continually  invest, not only in real estate but in staff development 
• from CEO to waiter they will have a somewhat shared ideology
• top level management will be driving through the message with every piece of communication they write
• no opportunity to cement pre-bookings mentality into staff will be missed
• you only have to look at the email signature of any manager and you'll find party booking links to their websites and social media
• they understand what their websites do for them so therefore ensure that will always be up to date 
• staff will be empowered but accountable 
• they will have a competetive bonus structure and remuneration package to keep their best sales people
• the structure will be reasonably flat
• they understood that it would take time, hard work and investment - by everyone in the organisation

Make no mistake, the £50,000,000 in pre-bookings came from this cultural  cornerstone.

I continue to watch in amazement how companies think they can emulate the Novus model and  wonder why they can't.
They fail because they think that Novus' success is solely built around a website. Well, maybe the website "captures" the traffic but, without the people behind the website and the culture and organisational goals driving the people, it's just another website.

Don't underestimate the value of expanding on or sharing organisational goals with every employee in the company. You want to emulate Novus? You will need to embrace a change in culture - which may be the hardest change of all.

I'll save Processes and Products for another day.

In the meantime, savour and appreciate what Novus has achieved. Capture customer data, analyse it and use it to your benefit. Above all, re-examine your own culture. What message do you give out to staff and customers?

This is not exclusive to large corporations. You have a pub with a couple of staff, it's exactly the same thing, just smaller and easier to manage. Make it your own goal for 2012.