The Tomato Sauce Principle
As a little kid growing up in America, Danny Meyer loved the tomato sauce his grandmother made. One day after devouring the ketchup, he asked her for the recipe. She gave it to him and then said something which stayed with him. For a long, long time.
"Remember this," she said to the little boy. "The tomato sauce you make will only be as good as the tomatoes you put into it. So get the very best tomatoes you can find. And that's not all. Take good care of the tomatoes. Once you've got the best tomatoes, if you just let them lie in a heap, they could get bruised - and lose their flavour. Take care of them so they retain their goodness." Danny didn't think too much about what his grandma said then, but the message stayed with him.
Maybe it was the grandma's sauce that got Danny interested in all things food. He went on to study cooking in France and Italy. He worked in restaurants. And at age 27, he opened his first restaurant in New York city - the Union Square Café. It was an instant hit and redefined casual dining in the United States. Union Square Café has been voted New York's most popular restaurant a record nine times over the last four decades. That's solid testimony to their unwavering commitment to delivering great food, great service. Danny went on to set up an array of restaurant chains - including the wildly successful Shake Shack - and is widely regarded as a pioneer in the restaurant business.
But there's something else that's special about Danny Meyer and the hospitality chain he founded. It has been the birthplace of many of the most successful chefs and restauranters of our times. Several new cafes and restaurants too were conceived while their founders were working in Danny's chain of restaurants. Union Square Café has become a chef-and-CEO factory for the restaurant business. Many, many industry leaders started their careers here, and attribute their success to the early lessons learnt at Union Square Café.
And Danny says he owes his success to the lessons learnt from his grandma and her tomato sauce. Her advice that 'the tomato sauce will only be as good as the tomatoes' and 'take good care of the tomatoes' have been the cornerstones on which he has built his business. Danny figured quite early that people and businesses are no different from tomatoes and tomato sauce. A business is only as good as the people inside it. And businesses that don't take care of their people seldom grow to their full potential. As he's gone about building his business, Danny's mantra for success has remained the same. Hire the best people you can. And take good care of them.
That is such good advice for us all. Whether you are an entrepreneur looking to start up, or a leader in a large organisation, remember the tomato sauce principle. First, hire the best people you can. Hire people better than yourself. As David Ogilvy would tell his agency chiefs "If each of us hires people bigger than ourselves, we will become a company of giants." And second, take good care of your people. Look after them. Show them you care.
It's worked for Danny Meyer and the Union Square Hospitality Group. Could work for you and me too, I reckon.
