When Simon Fox took the reins at HMV most people didn’t give him a prayer. But his focus on reinventing the brand and creating imaginative revenue streams has given the old dog a new lease of life.

When Simon Fox took the reins at HMV most people didn’t give him a prayer. But his focus on reinventing the brand and creating imaginative revenue streams has given the old dog a new lease of life.

It’s not been without a cost, and that, Fox admitted last week, was that Waterstone’s was neglected. Friday’s investor day was a chance for Fox to reveal how he was going to “do an HMV” on its sister bookseller.

The proposals he and new managing director Dominic Myers outlined made good sense. Booksellers know their stuff and it was about time they were given a chance to promote books they felt were right for their local markets.

But considering how bold HMV has been with new revenue streams, the big idea that might have been expected wasn’t there. Sure, there were interesting plans to develop stationery, and the business is building authority in e-books and readers, but fundamentally this was a return to the good old days of bookselling.

That will play well with the core customers, not to mention the booksellers, and should be well-executed under the clearly capable Myers. The question is whether that will be enough to sustain the model in a world that has been changed profoundly by the internet and supermarkets.

Ironically the next three years of plans for HMV overshadowed the Waterstone’s announcement, with fashion areas in stores being a particularly eye-catching move. Just how many people will want to buy band T-shirts remains to be seen, but Fox’s record means he deserves the benefit of the doubt, and the initiatives are an acknowledgment that the long-term decline of its core categories needs radical solutions. The confusing thing is why the opportunity hasn’t been taken to apply the same bold approach to redefine the role of the high street bookseller.

A clear path for Philips

It seems like an age since Marc Bolland’s departure from Morrisons was announced, but the interregnum doesn’t seem to have done the business any harm. Dalton Philips is fortunate to inherit a settled management team and a business in the rare position of being able to continue its growth trajectory without doing anything very different.

Philips will doubtless be inundated by management consultants advising him to move online, abroad or into convenience or non-food. In the first instance he’d be wise to follow his predecessor in ignoring them and focusing on introducing more UK shoppers to what it does best.