Branson was my mentor
What the world’s most famous businessman did for Peter AvisSome people don’t get lucky with their allocation of a mentor. Some end up with a grumpy old so-and-so from Finance; some get a dozy do-gooder who doesn’t do anything but talk incessantly at them; some get no one at all.
And some get the founder of the Virgin empire.
Peter Avis is one such beneficiary. He’s the restaurant manager of Babylon, a restaurant owned by Virgin Limited Edition and tucked pleasantly away above the famous Roof Gardens on London’s Kensington High Street.
Whilst his name might not be familiar to you, Richard Branson refers to him as an ‘industry ambassador’: Avis and his restaurant are multi-award winning, and no one in hospitality circles would laugh you out of town if you described him as the very best restaurant manager in the country.
Avis is one of those natural talents you could see yourself working for quite happily. He’s intelligent, funny, an excellent public speaker and he’s demonstrably passionate about his business and his colleagues.
But even with those talents, he says he’s done better than he might have expected. His headmaster once told him that Avis was cut out to be a street-sweeper, and he suffers from dyslexia, a disorder that he openly admits has nearly taken his career off the rails on more than one occasion.
Model opportunity
The history before Branson: Avis is a seventeen-year old ‘kid’ in Liverpool riding around on a bike. (One of his bosses, incidentally, still calls him ‘Scouse’.) One night he takes a call on the public phone outside the local. It’s his sister, working in Florida on a short-term modelling assignment, who tells him that she’s not coming back and he should join her in Fort Lauderdale pronto.
Avis goes, and finds a mentor called Nick who helps him work his way up in restaurants. The family then shifts to work in Vegas, which doesn’t work out so well. Soon they’re back in Liverpool, licking wounds and kicking heels.
But not for long. Soon Avis is in London, waiting at Babylon. Branson, the owner, is a reasonably frequent visitor and soon their paths cross. One night, Branson points out that Avis’s hair is much shorter than it had been on his previous last visit. As Branson describes in his book Screw Business As Usual, the comment arouses a surprising response in Avis:
I was slightly fazed to notice that he looked quite emotional, though he said nothing. Had I overstepped the boundary between friendly comment and intrusion? Some time later I learned that he was touched because, despite my not having seen him for some two years, I had immediately noticed his haircut… ‘I resolved to do the same,’ he told me. ‘I wanted to show that I cared enough about the members of staff at Babylon and anywhere I go; to notice them, as people, not just as employees.
Branson seems to bring out Avis’s emotional side. Elsewhere in the chapter, Branson explains how Avis cries when Joan Branson phones him to congratulate him on winning the Restaurant Manager of the Year award; when sitting around the Branson family table on Necker, Avis ‘started to sob’, apparently overcome with the realisation of just how far he’d come.
Branson also suffers from dyslexia, which gives his relationship with Avis common ground. Speaking in a video recorded for Avis’s recent address to a meeting organised by HR consultancy Purple Cubed, Branson nodded to the reciprocal nature of mentoring by saying he’d ‘learned a lot’ from Avis during the course of their acquaintance.
Double retention
In the private dining room at Babylon, we drink coffee and talk about the business case for mentoring. Outside the window, a chair has blown over on the balcony. Avis pops outside to right it, saying he wouldn’t be able to concentrate otherwise.
Back inside, Avis states his belief that a big benefit to mentoring is reduction in staff turnover. Mentees of his own, such as his Assistant Manager Luigi, stay around and develop, saving Babylon ‘tens of thousands’ in recruitment fees.
Avis also suggests that organisations can save by ditching crude, sheep-dip training interventions – mentoring is a far better alternative. Further savings are to be made on recruitment at Babylon because mentoring helps engagement which in turn engenders high numbers of employee referrals.
‘And in hospitality, there’s another way in which mentoring improves the bottom line,’ he adds. ‘By improving staff retention, you also improve customer retention.’ He mentions the name of a notable, regular Babylon customer. ‘He comes here often,’ said Avis wryly, ‘but he wouldn’t if he didn’t know the people, and they didn’t know that he likes cream in his espresso.’
Jo Harley, a director at Purple Cubed, points out that even though the business case for mentoring largely writes itself, ‘only 22% of UK businesses actually use mentoring, and that’s appalling.’ Harley’s colleague Jane Sunley anticipates this percentage will grow, though: ‘Millennials expect mentoring from their employers, so organisations will need to deliver it if they’re to attract talent.’
Avis continues to mentor, and talks fondly and knowledgeably about the learning journeys of a number of his people. All new joiners spend time with him one-to-one. ‘It gives you a necessary insight into who they are,’ he says, ‘and makes you more approachable.’ Babylon was named ‘Best Employer’ in the Catering Awards 2013, and its commitment to mentoring was seemingly a big reason why.
Finally, what makes a good mentor? ‘Patience,’ Avis says. ‘And passion for what you do.’ That passion is clearly still in Avis’s veins. The boss of the top restaurant with a multi-million turnover can’t stand seeing me with an empty coffee cup, and he darts away to replace it himself with a delicious refill.
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