30 AUGUST 1997, Page 21

Rubber bands and . . .

THE FIRST Mr Smith had a really good business idea. In 1828, so he noticed, The Spectator was refounded. The London & Birmingham Railway followed nine years later. Put the two together, and you had the makings of a national market for London- based papers. That was how W.H. Smith got its start — its varnished wooden book- stalls spread as the railways spread — and if anybody there has got half as good an idea now, it is being kept under wraps. Instead, W.H. Smith is looking for a chief executive, preferably with a plan and a point for the business. The last one, who cut down on its range of rubber bands, has gone to work for British Telecom, where he will exchange his old pack of troubles for new ones.