Mentoris writes: Delegation... art or science?

When I was a young trainee dispensing optician, I always had a desire to get involved in the ‘marketing’ of the business. I was on day release at DO college and apart from my O-level in economics I had received no business training. It would be fair to say that I did not really understand what marketing was, something to do with advertising and publicity perhaps?

I nagged my boss (the practice owner) about this and eventually he told me I could sit in on the up and coming meeting with the Yellow Pages rep. In case you have no idea what I am talking about, Yellow Pages was a business directory, delivered to every household in the UK. It was about three inches thick and we used to use them in practice as a booster seat for the shorter kids so they could see the chart in the mirror.