If it ain't broke, don't fix it

PARDON me sir, is that the Paternoster Choo Choo? Sir Geoff Mulcahy might just be singing that now. Just over 20 years ago, the Paternoster consortium acquired the lagging Woolworths. Sir Geoff took the helm and embarked on a series of acquisitions that changed the face of the group.

Kingfisher, as it is now known, is very much focused on DIY and has hived off the Woolworths chain and the most interesting of Sir Geoff 's acquisitions, Superdrug. It is thinking of doing the same with the electrical businesses Comet and the French Darty.

The group's intention to buy the remaining 45% of Castorama for £3.2bn seems to have hit problems. You get the feeling that this ain't going to go smoothly: when the French don't want to do something, they simply won't do it.

The French courts have directed Kingfisher to appoint independent bankers to ensure the Castorama shareholders get a fair deal. This must have gone down like a lead balloon with Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, who were licking their lips in anticipation of another fat fee. I am sure we will see some fun and games unfold in weeks to come. At the time the Castorama deal was announced, Sir Geoff stated he was leaving the company. At 60 you don't know if he wants to retire or has come up against the famous 'irreconcilable differences with the board'. Whatever, he is on his bike.

A new whizkid will have to be appointed. Chairman Sir Francis Mackay will no doubt haul in a well-known firm of consultants such as 'Weno F Hall & Co' - although rumours have it he quite fancies Gerry Murphy, chief executive of Carlton, for the job. One thing is for sure - whoever he appoints, the new chief executive will want to make his or her mark. It is human nature that when someone takes over the job of the dearly departed, there seems a need of change for the sake of change.

You cannot just say: 'Well, there's nothing wrong with the way things are so I am just going to leave things the same.' 'Are you mad?' the institutions will exclaim. 'Refocus the group at once. What's this nonsense that you are going to run the thing in the same way? Don't be ridiculous.'

Some may recall that Lord Simpson was pressured to refocus GEC when Lord Weinstock decided to retire. Intimidated by City gurus, Simpson and his co-directors managed to take a company with £3bn of cash in the bank to one that owed £4bn. All that in just over a year. Not bad, eh? That's what I call refocus. We will never know why Sir Geoff is going. He may have decided enough is enough and want to sail off into the big blue yonder. If that's it, good luck to him.

Whatever the case, the Kingfisher board had better take care that it does not find an ego-crazed lunatic to change the direction too much.

Dixons Group, whose share price was affected last week by the results of Comet and Darty, part of Kingfisher, is also losing the man at the helm. In September my old mate Sir Stanley Kalms stands down as chairman of Dixons, the company his father founded and which Stanley has run for more years than he would like to remember.

He must go down in history as one of the UK's greatest retailers and ranks with the likes of Sir Jack Cohen of Tesco. Stanley's replacement is Sir John Collins, who was sensibly appointed to the board a while ago. I guess the intention was for him to get his feet under the table and understand the business.

Dixons is a classic example of achieving organic growth by carefully planning and testing new ventures. Some will recall the group's short-lived romance in the US with the doomed Silo acquisition. I believe this taught them a lesson, one which Stanley has not forgotten. There have been acquisitions since then, but they have been relatively small in cash terms.

Dixons cleverly recognised PC World as a way to go, bought it quite cheaply when there were only a few branches and built on it from there. It is cautiously considering expansion out of the UK - I suppose the Silo affair still haunts it. The company has dipped its feet in the water in Norway with Elkjop, but again expansion is being well orchestrated.

If there was ever a case of ''f it's not broke, don't fix it', this is it. I beg of you, Sir John, don't get sucked into change for the sake of change. Take it from me, you will get respect from every one if you let it be known that you are not there to fix anything, it's business as usual. Keep the culture instilled over the years by the great man.

When those institutional tossers get hold of you and start to whisper that they didn't really like the way Stanley did this or that, tell them to f*** off and mind their own business.

Sir Alan Sugar has donated his fee to charity