It is clearly useful to identify trends and take appropriate action. Human beings are noted for both their innate ability to complicate matters, and their apparently equally innate desire for a grand theory of everything to explain and manage that complexity.

Home shopping, the “next thing” in retailing, has disappointed supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, which is abandoning trials outside the M25 area, citing the lack of economies of scale. In London, by contrast, demand is sufficient to justify the company spending between £7 million and £10 million to open a home-shopping delivery centre stocking 15,000 items.

First, Break all the Rules is the distillation of research conducted by Gallup over 25 years, involving more than a million employees and 80,000 managers. But this is no dry account of statistical values.

Recent purchasing graduates have been advised to keep their options open when seeking job opportunities. A survey by recruitment consultancy Supply Chain Personnel (SCP), released last month, found that 80 per cent of the respondents who had joined a smaller firm for their first job gained more responsibility, wider experience and benefited from a “nurturing environment”.