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Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business QUOTES

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business QUOTES

1 " I have taken from the continued success of Union Square Café is that willingness to overcome difficult cimcumstances is a crucial character trait in my employees, partners, and restaurants. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

2 " Every business needs a core strategy to be what I call always on the improve, for us it's constant, gentle pressure. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

3 " Doing two things like a half-wit never equals doing one thing like a whole wit. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

4 " The excellence reflex is a natural reaction to fix something that isn't right, or to improve something that could be better.

The excellence reflex is rooted in instinct and upbringing, and then constantly honed through awareness, caring and practice.

The overarching concern to do the right thing well is something we can't train for. Either it's there or it isn't. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

5 " Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

6 " Make new mistakes every day. Don’t waste time repeating the old ones. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

7 " In the end, what’s most meaningful is creating positive, uplifting outcomes for human experiences and human relationships. Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

8 " My appreciation of the power of hospitality and my desire to harness it have been the greatest contributors to whatever success my restaurants and businesses have had. I’ve learned how crucially important it is to put hospitality to work, first for the people who work for me and subsequently for all the other people and stakeholders who are in any way affected by our business—in descending order, our guests, community, suppliers, and investors. I call this way of setting priorities “enlightened hospitality.” It stands some more traditional business approaches on their head, but it’s the foundation of every business decision and every success we’ve had. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

9 " Her recipe for the perfect waitress was, “two parts Walter Cronkite to one part Mae West, carefully blended with a cup of Mikhail Baryshnikov and a liberal sprinkling of Mother Teresa. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

10 " I have always felt that solo guests pay us the ultimate compliment by joining us for a meal. Their visit has no ulterior motive (it involves no business, romance, or socializing). These guests simply want to do something nice for themselves, chez nous. Why wouldn’t we reward that? "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

11 " The only way a company can grow, stay true to its soul, and remain consistently successful is to attract, hire, and keep great people. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

12 " For judges of character, there is no such thing as the color gray. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

13 " If people cannot ever develop into one of our top three cooks, servers, managers, or maître d’s, why would we hire them? How will they help us improve and become champions? It’s pretty easy to spot an overwhelmingly strong candidate or even an underwhelmingly weak candidate. It’s the “whelming” candidate you must avoid at all costs, because that’s the one who can and will do your organization the most long-lasting harm. Overwhelmers earn you raves. Underwhelmers either leave on their own or are terminated. Whelmers, sadly, are like a stubborn stain you can’t get out of the carpet. They infuse an organization and its staff with mediocrity; they’re comfortable, and so they never leave; and, frustratingly, they never do anything that rises to the level of getting them promoted or sinks to the level of getting them fired. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

14 " Finally, I ask our managers to weigh one other critical factor as they handicap the prospect. Do they believe the candidate has the capacity to become one of the top three performers on our team in his or her job category? If people cannot ever develop into one of our top three cooks, servers, managers, or maître d’s, why would we hire them? How will they help us improve and become champions? It’s pretty easy to spot an overwhelmingly strong candidate or even an underwhelmingly weak candidate. It’s the “whelming” candidate you must avoid at all costs, because that’s the one who can and will do your organization the most long-lasting harm. Overwhelmers earn you raves. Underwhelmers either leave on their own or are terminated. Whelmers, sadly, are like a stubborn stain you can’t get out of the carpet. They infuse an organization and its staff with mediocrity; they’re comfortable, and so they never leave; and, frustratingly, they never do anything that rises to the level of getting them promoted or sinks to the level of getting them fired. And "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

15 " Policies are nothing more than guidelines to be broken for the benefit of our guests. We’re here to give the guests what they want, period. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

16 " Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

17 " I’m a bottom-up manager who subscribes to the concept of “servant leadership,” as articulated by the late Robert Greenleaf. He believed that organizations are at their most effective when leaders encourage collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and empowerment. In any hierarchy, it’s clear that the ultimate boss (in my case, me) holds the most power. But a wonderful thing happens when you flip the traditional organizational chart upside down so that it looks like a V with the boss on the bottom. My job is to serve and support the next layer “above” me so that the people on that layer can then serve and support the next layer “above” them, and so on. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

18 " Change works only when people believe it is happening for them, not to them. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

19 " But the worst mistake is not to figure out some way to end up in a better place after having made a mistake. We call that 'writing a great last chapter. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

20 " Why do we care for our stakeholders in this particular order? The interests of our own employees must be placed directly ahead of those of our guests because the only way we can consistently earn raves, win repeat business, and develop bonds of loyalty with our guests is first to ensure that our own team members feel jazzed about coming to work. Being jazzed is a combination of feeling motivated, enthusiastic, confident, proud, and at peace with the choice to work on our team. "

― Danny Meyer , Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business