July 15, 2021
Hospitality and Humanity #115 | Danny Meyer on The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish
Check out The Knowledge Project episode and show notes
Key Takeaways
- “We are all in the Hospitality business” -Danny Meyer
- Everyone succeeds when your stakeholders are rooting for your success. That’s the general definition of hospitality
- When technical skills today are so easily copied, emotional skills are the things that add more value to company culture to differentiate a candidate
- 6 emotional skills for hiring: optimistic kindness, intellectual curiosity, work ethic, empathy, self-awareness, and integrity
- “Mistakes are the greatest renewable resource” – Danny Meyer
- 5 ‘A’s of mistake making: Aware – Acknowledge – Apologize – Act – Apply additional generosity
- The location tells you what the restaurant should be. Don’t let the restaurant tell the location what to be
- Also defines if a particular restaurant can or should be scaled
- A balance between customization and consistency is valuable to long-term, scaled, and diversified growth
Intro
- Danny Meyer (@dhmeyer) is a well-accomplished restaurateur that is the CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group and founder of Shake Shack. In this episode, Danny and Shane discuss the intersection between hospitality and humanity.
- Host: Shane Parrish (@ShaneAParrish)
Restaurant Generalist
- Danny defines himself as a restaurant generalist. He didn’t want to dive into being singularly a chef or a restaurateur
- Activities include: marketing, food tasting, hiring, teaching, décor, guest interaction, and more
- Restaurant location:
- One thing you can’t change about a location is where it is and what surrounds it
- How do people get there and how does the community relate to the space
- The space tells you what the restaurant should be. Don’t let the restaurant tell the space what to be
- Employees need to thrive in the culture and have a passion for curating an appropriate social atmosphere
- A balance between customization and consistency is valuable to long-term, scaled, and diversified growth
Hospitality
- “We are all in the Hospitality business” -Danny Meyer
- Everyone succeeds when your stakeholders are rooting for your success. That’s the general definition of hospitality
- Begins when the person on the other end of the transaction trusts you for repeatable success and growth
- Virtuous cycle: repeatable positive customer experience leads to community acceptance and investment growth. Good events snowball into better business.
Creating & Scaling Culture
- “Culture is the brick but language is the mortar” -Danny Meyer
- Language clarifies intentions and creates a sense of belonging
- Ray Kroc – Scaling systems, best know for his impact on building the foundation of McDonald’s repeatable and successful customer experience
- Companies must use growth to advance culture as opposed to worrying about growth affecting the maintenance of the culture
- You are typically happier when you make someone else happy
6 Emotional Skills for Hiring
- Optimistic Kindness: You can see someone’s general view on life in their eyes
- Intellectual Curiosity: Always striving to learn something new
- Work Ethic: Learn how to do the job and cares about doing it well, always looking for better solutions
- Empathy: Ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes
- Hospitality golden rule: “Do onto others as you believe they would want to be done onto them” -Danny Meyer
- Self-Awareness: Understanding that we all have different motivations and experiences
- Integrity: Having the judgment to do the right thing regardless of self-interest
- How do you apply these to hiring and culture?
- Be articulate on why you are hiring for these skills
- You can’t teach these skills directly but you can celebrate them when you see them, constantly creating a positive atmosphere around emotional intelligence
- When skills today are so easily copied, these are the things that add more value to company culture to differentiate a candidate
Shake Shack
- Was hesitant to expand to his second Shake Shack location because he saw his father suffer bankruptcies while attempting expansion
- Realized he wasn’t pre-destined to follow in his father’s footstep
- Shake Shack originally wasn’t born to become multi-location. It was more focused on culture growth rather than product growth in its expansion.
Restaurant Longevity
- Restaurants have been struggling lately:
- Downward pressure: competition on price point among many competitors
- Upward pressure: cost increases on talent, real estate, and food & beverage products
- “Restaurants were the elderly patient with pre-existing conditions, then Covid hit” -Danny Meyer
- The public must understand the true cost of eating out is doing the right thing by people, not just the animals and plants
Mistakes
- “Mistakes are the greatest renewable resource” – Danny Meyer
- Since we make so many (honest) mistakes, how do you use it to make the situation better
- 5 ‘A’s of mistake making (mistakes of integrity, not intentional malice):
- Aware – Acknowledge – Apologize – Act – Apply additional generosity
- Reverse roles in the mistake and do more than you would expect in the return
