Most leadership advice comes from business books. Danny Meyer’s came from his grandmother.
A smile has never been the expense that ruined a restaurant’s financial statement.
Legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer, founder of Shake Shack and founder and executive chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group, uses that example to challenge the idea that hospitality and profitability work against each other. He once believed focusing on the financial side of his business could get in the way of caring for people. Life experience changed his mind.
“You can offer so much more hospitality when you’re profitable,” Meyer says.
Meyer joined me at Bourbon Steak in San Francisco, a Michael Mina restaurant that opened early for the conversation, to discuss his new book, What Could Possibly Go Right?
Financial strength lets a restaurant do more for its employees, guests, community and suppliers. For Meyer, pursuing profit becomes a problem when owners start taking away what guests value or what employees need to serve them.
“You don’t get more profitable by cutting muscle,” he says. “You get there by strengthening your muscle.”
Strengthening muscle takes attention, and where leaders direct theirs matters as much as where they direct their dollars. A lesson from Danny Meyer’s grandmother’s garden helped him think about that.
As a child visiting Grandma Louise in St. Louis, he learned to identify and pull weeds. As he grew older, he kept reaching for them, even as the flowers grew. His grandmother suggested a different approach.
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