Folks who start their own company - and are still running it 40 years later - think they are doing it right. Also, to be fair, the Cook shops DID bring in a lot of revenue that the Board of directors managed to flush down the drain. However, in the longer term, Hays should be focusing on managing decline.
I recall when British Telecom was privatised (I was in the telecomms world but always worked on the customer side) and they have done better than I expected but they set out thinking they could become a world champion and that is not what has happened.
I am glad for the Cook staff and I just hope that Hays have given consideration to the integration of their computer and telecommunication systems and how much TIME and expertise as well as money that will take. Who owns the physical terminal computer is zero by comparison to getting them online to the owner, reporting business and enabling it to be managed.