September 2021 milkshake 13
committed to find a seat for them and
dust off the things that they’re afraid of
and let them try it. My thought is to hire
the youth and fail fast. In other words,
it is a great time to experiment, and the
next generation gives us that platform.
How do you see their future?
They’re excited. If you brought in a
young person to your business and you
really taught them the business model
and gave them a serious role in the
business, they would see that virtue
and think of it as a long-term thing.
But if you bring in someone to push
buttons and run a copy machine, they’ll
be there until the next restaurant job
opens that they can collect tips on.
Can you speak to the impact of trends
these days?
I’m a guest speaker in a trends course
and one of my topics is that we
have more knowledge about trends
than we care to believe. And so,
trends typically are cascaded from a
consumer experience, to a knowledge
worker, to an enterprise. And at the
consumer level, we have the most
power we’ve ever had in the history of
mankind to vote with our feet and our
actions. So, I think when people start
trusting their judgment rather than
getting caught up in being part of the
trend, we can find a better version of
ourselves. If I know what the trend is,
it doesn’t mean I have to be a part of
it. But I can also be a part of it and feel
confident that I will be OK in it.
Is there a trend that concerns you at all?
I think we have gotten a bit off
the mark with regards to service.
Anytime profits started waning,
we tended to reduce headcount
and focused on optimizing our
operations. But there are so many
ways to simultaneously streamline
while adding holistic “complete”
services that are customer centric.
Today, getting good service in many
aspects of our lives seems to leave
a lot to be desired. But that is the
opportunity that exists for anyone
who wants to stand out and be
defined by the service of others.