Setting the Table
Author: Danny Meyer

I first learned of Danny Meyer and his unique approach to the restaurant business through Bo Burlingham‘s book, Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big.  Bo was in town in June 2006 as part of the LeadersConnect and Michigan Leaders Read program, hosted by one of the other organizations profiled in his book, Ann Arbor’s own Zingerman’s. 

In October 1985, at age twenty-seven, Danny Meyer, with a good idea and scant experience, opened what would become one of New York City’s most revered restaurants – Union Square Cafe.  Little more than twenty years later, Danny is the CEO of one of the world’s most dynamic restaurant organizations, which includes eleven unique dining establishments, each at the top of its game.  How has he done it? How has he consistently beaten the odds and set the competitive bar in one of the toughest trades around?

In this landmark book, Danny shares the lessons he’s learned while developing the winning recipe for doing the business he calls “enlightened hospitality.”  This innovative philosophy emphasizes putting the power of hospitality to work in a new and counterintuitive way: The first and foremost application of hospitality is to the people who work for you, and then, in descending order of priority, to the guests, the community, the suppliers, and the investors.  This way of prioritizing stands the more traditional business models on their heads, but Danny considers it the foundation of every success that he and his restaurants have achieved.

Some of Danny’s other insights:

• Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. These two simple concepts – for and to – express it all.
• Context, context, context trumps the outdated location, location, location.
• Shared ownership develops when guests talk about a restaurant as if it’s theirs. That sense of affiliation builds trust and invariably leads to repeat business.
• Err on the side of generosity:  You get more by first giving more.
• Wherever your center lies, know it, name it, believe in it.  When you cede your core values to someone else, it’s time to quit.

If you lead any type of service organization – or just love great stories about successful entrepreneurs – you’ve got to read this book!  I couldn’t put it down. For some additional thoughts on placing employees first in the experience equation, see Great Customer Experiences Begin By Designing Great Employee Experiences.

[tags] Danny Meyer, Bo Burlingham, Small Giants, Setting the Table, Zingerman’s, LeadersConnect, Entrepreneurs, New York [/tags]