A restaurant where they do everything right is a gift, a treasure, especially in small-town America. Because there are so few, when an exceptional restaurant gets into trouble, or goes out of business, we feel a sense of loss. We wonder what happened.
It is just sad all the way around.
That’s what Catherine was trying to prevent when she emailed:
“Mr. Beaver, Patrick, my husband is a gifted chef, and we dreamed of a restaurant with a small, intimate space, just a few tables. Several months ago we opened ‘Patrick’s Place,’ and in no time, it became the town favorite where you had to book a week in advance.
“Friends and potential investors are trying to convince him to relocate to a space six times as large. But I warned, that was not our goal! You can’t clone yourself. We can rent the vacant office next to us now, open a wall and have one-third more seating space. Unless you find someone with your skills who wants to come to this small town, by caving in to the pressure to expand, we will lose customers and be out of business!
“My husband is stubborn but likes your column. Do you know something he can read that might keep us on course?”
Indeed, I do.
Path to trouble: lose your North Star
Business consultants and authors Geoff Tuff and Steven Goldbach have written a compelling and accessible prescription for staying on track that is as applicable to Patrick’s Place as it is to a corporation that employs thousands: “Hone: How Purposeful Leaders Defy Drift.”
I had the most interesting Zoom interview with them, where they defined “drift” as the deviation of a business from its intended path, its reason to exist, elemental purpose, its North Star.
The best way to prevent drift is through “honing,” which involves making continuous, purposeful adjustments to stay on track with your purpose, much like a chef hones a knife daily to maintain its edge. These authors have created an “aha!” moment that explains how an enterprise of whatever size can slowly drift into hot water due to a lack of situational awareness.
During our interview, we discussed several of the threats to the survival of any business, no matter its size. Two issues the authors flagged for business owners:
1. Understanding the Danger of Pressure to Grow
Customers like consistency, predictability; it’s what keep them coming back. When companies, over time, change what they have been doing, sometimes the magic and the elemental purpose — their reason for existing — is washed away.
Pressure to grow and the temptation of greater profits often leads to greatly expanding your footprint or establishing a second location. This can easily result in drifting off course, away from what made the business successful and away from its elemental purpose.
The risks include shutting down, being unable to pay suppliers and employees and facing lawsuits because, like Catherine’s fear for Patrick, the owner was convinced that “bigger is better.” They learn the hard way that bigger is not always better.
It is clear that Patrick was on a path that would see his restaurant drift in a direction that predictably could lead to failure, while his wife would see it gradually expand in a manageable way, an example of honing.
2. What Leads to Drift? The Little Things You Don’t Recognize
Forgetting about the needs of the people who are important to your business leads to drift; pursuing growth or change that takes you away from your elemental purpose, failing to uphold the standards you began with is a path that can prove costly.
Rarely, a business will make a catastrophic decision that is immediately destructive. More often, business failures are the result of having ignored small things and not being aware you have done so. Then, you wake up one day, realizing that you are actually off course — all of a sudden, something has broken. Where are the customers?
Consider a fast-food restaurant or a chain coffee shop that offers more and more menu items that seemed, at the time, to be valid. One day, the bosses realize that customers are waiting too long and some are even walking away. Employees are unhappy, too
This would be a case of drift. The solution is to take a leap back in time to restore what the business was before things got out of hand.
What Will Lead to Success?
Authors Tuff and Goldbach underscore that the path to success requires:
- Having a clear sense of why your business exists in the world, from the point of view of your customers, employees and all the relevant stakeholders.
- Asking “What do my people need to do in order to deliver that purpose?” and “Does our structure enable this to happen, or does it interfere with it?”
- Curiosity. It is one of the most valuable tools in your tool box. How can we improve? How can we make things better? Seeking ways to enhance employee engagement and customer relations should be your goal.
“Hone” took me back to high school when a classmate read a poem aloud, and everyone said, “That’s exactly how I feel, but I could never put it into words this way!”
George Tuff and Steven Goldbach put into words the things in business we’ve all looked at but were not seen. Now they are.
Dennis Beaver practices law in Bakersfield and welcomes comments and questions from readers, which may be faxed to 661-323-7993, or emailed to Lagombeaver1@gmail.com. Also, visit dennisbeaver.com.
