Entrepreneurship Lessons from Gordon Ramsay
My friend Bruce Wyman – who is the Director of Technology at the Denver Art Museum – turned me on to Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Early this morning I discovered that Micah Baldwin – who runs Business Development for Lijit – is also a huge fan. Micah has a great post up for all entrepreneurs titled 5 Lessons Learned From Gordon Ramsay. Sometimes broccoli soup is just broccoli is a line I’ll be using for the next few weeks (until I discover a better one.)
While we are thinking about Lijit, Alex Iskold over at AdaptiveBlue just wrote about the integration of Lijit into the latest version of AdaptiveBlue’s BlueOrganizer. You can now Search Lijit Right From the Context Menu. I’m an investor in both Lijit and AdaptiveBlue and love how they fit nicely together like chocolate and peanut butter.
"Direct" communication like this will provide high level results only in the short term. People, particularly talented people – you know, the kind we all want to keep around – will only tolerate very small doses of this sort of treatment. It can be effective when a situation requires immediate, focused action. In the long run, it will cost more in staff churn than it generates in real returns. While this makes good television, it provides a terrible management example. (Are there any good examples on TV?)
I would strongly recommend Bob Sutton's "The No Asshole Rule" to any and all. Unfortunately, those who need it most are the least likely to pick it up.
Deva – totally agree. I've watched the BBC ones and love 'em. The US one that I watched wasn't nearly as good and definitely felt like manufactured TV.
Much of the FOX show stuff is manufactured (ie: fake) and pretty ridiculous. Check out the original BBC version of Ramsay's show, it's WAY better and far more realistic – and does a much better job at actually showing how Ramsay helps teams implement realistic changes. There are also some episodes "Kitchen Nightmares Revisited" which show most of the first ep with a short followup a year or so later – most interesting is when they fail and they explore why.
I too am a closet Ramsay Fan. I make my kids watch it to show them that sometimes people are just loud and yell "because its a style".
Todd suggests elsewhere to watch Top Gear as well. I wholly second that. It's a car show but even if you don't like cars, you'll love the show. It's beautiful, it's funny. If you want a quick taste, watch <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0R2tbFBGd1M>. Just for the cinematography and video editing alone…
i really meant this youtube link: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hEZc4JMMsk>
My brother is a restaurant chef (executive chef of one "store" of a high-end steak-house chain). Restaurants are really different from tech businesses.
They're more intense and the people are qualitatively different (there seems to be a really high percentage of people that I'd just describe as dysfunctional in the restaurant industry). Consider Anthony Bourdain: a successful, former heroin addict. Given the number of dysfunctional people, management tends to get really brutal in the way that it treats the staff: either demonstrate usefulness or get the fuck out. I know few tech businesses that could get away with treating people this way regularly.
That said, there is a lesson to be learned about the value of direct, clear communication.
I should have mentioned this previously: I remember when you and Amy were militantly anti-TV. I recall a party, shortly before you left Boston, I believe, where you invited Sally, the other guests and me "to watch the television," which was an old black and white TV that Dean Fiala had brought you. You were suggesting that we watch the box itself, as you had no intention of plugging it in.
What happened?
We gave in to the inevitable pull of the box.
As a geek, tech entrepreneur, past angel, obsessive foodie, gourmand and closet chef, I too love watching Gordon's antics. I think there are tremendous parallels in the restaurant industry and any other, including dot-coms and the like. I also agree the BBC versions are much better.