One man can make a difference
One man can make a difference. That is the premise of one of my favourite TV shows, 1982’s Knight Rider. It aired in Sri Lanka in the late Nineties, on ITN, Fridays, 8pm if I recall. I vividly remember running to our Sony CRT TV and waiting in earnest, finger hovering over the record button of our VCR, waiting to act with speed upon hearing that iconic synth pop riff. Insofar as the TV show, one man did make a difference – for the better. The same can be true in many areas of hospitality, and, as I shall discuss here, having one man to make a difference won’t always be for the better – it can be for the worse.
I was starkly reminded of how ‘One Man Can Make a Negative Difference’ when ordering some short eats for my daughter’s first birthday party. Having chosen a well-known bakery chain who prides themselves on being fresh, my wife and I got our hands on their list of party items and made a list. We checked it twice (because budgeting these days is immensely important unless you’re in the top tier who pays 36% income tax, or is spending someone else’s money), and called up the nearest outlet to order.
As soon as we started to order, we ran into stumbling blocks. For starters, some of the more interesting items we had chosen, such as mutton rolls and a few other ‘all-time’ items weren’t available. As someone who doesn’t like going with the ‘defaults’ like fish rolls or seeni-sambol buns, this was frustrating. After the third item we had chosen wasn’t available, I lost my evaporating patience and told my wife (who was on the phone with the outlet), “let’s just cancel the d*mn order and buy from somewhere else. She asked them why they couldn’t fulfil their own item list, and the dark truth was revealed.
You see, this popular bakery chain which is…or rather was a firm favourite of mine up to this point, was reliant on One Man Making a Difference. The stark truth was, their Chef had resigned. Moved on... having said ‘Hasta La Vista, Baby’, in true terminator style. And he may jolly well have done that, because they (outlet staff) admitted that now that he had gone, they couldn’t fulfil the orders for several of the more appealing (and in some cases higher priced), items on their list!
Now this got me thinking, surely, they couldn’t have been that daft. How could they have been comfortable to allow one man posses such power and control? All recipes for food and beverage items sold by their company should have been documented. If the chef had personally developed recipe or two, the operator should have worked out a deal. If not, outlet staff wouldn’t have the rather ticklish job of sheepishly admitting to customers that the reason you can only get basic short eats is because the man who knew how to make the interesting stuff left and likely took the knowledge with him.
In general, confidential information such as trade secrets (recipes in this case) should be distributed on a need-to-know basis. Does your entire staff need access to all your recipes or do some cooks need access to some recipes or even some parts of recipes?
From a culinary perspective, some chef’s handle the confidentiality of some special recipes by having two versions of the recipe: a chef’s version which has all the details and a cook’s version, which doesn’t show the whole picture. For example, say the chef has developed a ‘dry rub’ by combining eight herbs and spices for a meat item to be barbequed; he may not disclose the exact ratio of the herbs and spices. Instead, what the cooks need to know is what the rub consists of (to let guests know owing to allergies), and how much of the prepared rub to spread on the meat.
Now imagine what would happen if, say, Mercedes-Benz had only one person who knew how to perform the final assembly for the famous S-Class – their flagship luxury sedan, and that person left. Or if the Raffles Hotel in Singapore had the recipe for their famous ‘Singapore Sling’ locked away in one person’s mind – and that person moved on to the next world. These brands would lose a significant part of their essence, wouldn’t they?
So, take a hard inside look at your establishment – be it a hotel, restaurant, bakery chain, entertainment venue, or any other type of business, and ask yourself this question – is any element of my business’s success dependent entirely on one person – and if they leave, or cease to be, will my business take a significant hit?
Ashraaq Wahab- Director of Marketing and Technical Hospitality Sri Lanka, Automotive Presenter, Marketer, Photographer and Writer, who enjoys penning his thoughts, insights and ideas on a variety of topics.
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