The pub was failing and the CEO took an innovation risk that in its near outcome changes the economics of a dying business. He should be admired not fired.
That depends entirely upon one's definition of "admirable". Personally, if the act requires one to be deceitful (eg, lying about the fact that your writers aren't writers), then that's not very admirable at all to me. If that's what you find admirable, well... alrighty then.