Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

Alright, so I just finished reading Danny Meyer's book Setting the Table, and while I gotta say, it's a bit outdated, there's still some good stuff in there. I mean, the guy knows hospitality, no doubt about it.But let's face it, some of the stuff he talks about just feels a little too rose-tinted, ya know? I mean, sure, let's all hold hands and sing kumbaya, but at the end of the day, it's a business, and businesses are tough. That being said, Meyer's got a few things right, like treating your staff well and making sure the customer's happy. And I gotta admit, I do daydream a bit about sinking my teeth into a juicy, expensive burger at one of his places.But hey, it's not all sunshine and roses in the restaurant world, and we all know that. So take it with a grain of salt, but if you're looking for some solid advice on hospitality, Meyer's got some worthwhile things to say.

It is a great book , except for the first and last chapters. The hospitality insights are really great , but the management insights nowadays are common sense

Setting the Table by Danny Meyer provides lots of value for business leaders. I ranked this book five stars based on the value alone. The reader should be apprised that the book is written as a memoir of Mr. Meyer's experience in the restaurant business.As a business leader you should study excellence in your industry and outside of your industry and there are numerous take-aways in Setting the Table that can be applied to any business. Here are ten excellent points I took away from Mr. Meyer's book.1. The Excellence Reflex - "A natural reaction to fix something that isn't right, or to improve something that could be better." The excellent reflex is a natural reaction that some people have and cannot be taught. Meyer trains his leaders how hire those that have it.2. Employees can be categorized as Overwhelmers, Whelmers, and Underwhelmers. It is easy to identify Underwhelmers and get rid of them. The most dangerous employees are the Whelmers because "they infuse an organization and its staff with mediocrity...and send a dangerous message to your staff and guests that "average" is acceptable."3. Coaching is correcting with dignity.4. You obtain valuable leadership skills while managing volunteers. It requires you to consistently motivate employees beyond their earnings.5. Create a sense of "shared ownership" with your customers by taking an interest in them and making them feel important. They will view you as a partner instead of a provider.6. ABCD - Always Be Collecting Dots. You should aggressively collect lots of little information about your customer (dots) as they interact with your product or service. Then make the connection between the dots as a mechanism to improve your product or service to all customers.7. Customers may love your product or service but the relationship that they have with you or your employees is what builds loyalty. Therefore you should take every opportunity to exceed expectations to create a lasting relationship.8. Enlightened Hospitality - "We would define our successes and our failures in terms of the degree to which we had championed, first, one another and then our guests, community, suppliers and investors." This is an extremely powerful concept and is rooted in the integrity theme Meyer has throughout the book. You can't expect employees that don't treat each other with respect, who can't be hospitable with one another to then turn around and treat the customer with respect and high levels of hospitality a customer deserves. Poor relationships internal to the organization migrate to poor relationships external to the organization. Ultimately being last on the list benefits the investor by long term organizational success.9. Judge your staff on 51 percent emotional job performance and 49 percent technical job performance. You can always teach technical while emotional is much harder if not impossible to develop. Lack of emotional job performance skills destroys teams and alienates customers.10. "The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled" and "the worst mistake is not to figure out some way to end up in a better place after having made a mistake."The ten points above are obviously more powerful in the context of the book when illustrated with Mr. Meyer's stories and experiences.Dr. James T. Brown PMP PE CSPAuthor, The Handbook of Program Management

In my soul I believe that making people feel special is a competitive advantage, whether that is with employees or with clients.Do your clients feel like guests?I think people who work in the hospitality (particularly hotels) look at their jobs in one of two ways, most see their jobs as helping someone to have a good night’s sleep, in a clean and nice room. Some others see their job as making sure guests are relaxed, that guests enjoy their city, and that guests don’t have to worry about a THING. The latter are the 5%’ers Danny speaks about.The book starts off a lot about Danny’s background, it was admittedly slow, but chapter 4 is when it started sinking in for me, so if you get it start there if you are pressed for time.“The opportunity to make someone feel special is all around you, just look UNDER the rocks”In this chapter it opens with a story about turning over rocks, and Danny talks about how he sees it as his job to turn over the rocks of his business, look deeper than what is on the surface to understand more about your clients. As usual learning to watch and listen is again showing itself as a critical skill in making someone feel special.Later he goes on to speak about 51%'ers...The 51%’ers have 5 core characteristics:1 – Optimistic Warmth2 – Intelligence3 – Work Ethic4 – Empathy5 – Self awareness and IntegrityI liked how chapter 9 opened up with “Constant, Gentle Pressure”, Danny states that the core of effective leadership lies in:1 – Setting a clear vision for your team so they know where you are taking them2 – Hold people accountable to consistent standards of excellence3 – Communicate, repeatedly, a well-defined set of cultural priorities and non-negotiable valuesThroughout the book there were times I found myself nodding and saying "yup" again and again.Danny has struggled with scaling his business and not losing his soul in the process and goes into great detail on what creates scale that doesn't get too far away from core principles.Lastly he ends the book with this reminder:“The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled.”In other words we are all going to make mistakes, that’s a given, it’s how you handle them that is the key. The concept of writing the great last chapter on every mistake is the KEY. When a mistake is made, it’s made, but the future is NOT made yet. How can you take a mistake that happened and turn it into the great last chapter in the story with a client? You can only turn things around when you genuinely care about the person, and righting the wrong.

If you want to serve customers well, this book is THE Book.

Inspiring book, I have taken a lot of tips from it as a restaurant manager. I do think some parts are a bit waffly and some parts of the book were more just about Danny and his life that I couldn't take any inspiration or information from. But dotted around are some great key points to remember and I am glad I read this even with mixed feelings.

While the first few chapters are rather dull - they've just aboutf his family and growing up - the rest is rather excellent and contains lessons that can be applied to all careers. I'm certainly glad he took the time to write it.

I enjoyed the entire book, completely lost myself in it and the vivid descriptions of an excellent fellow restaurateur. Wish I'd read it before starting my restaurant 8 years ago. Would've saved me a few mistakes and pitfalls many new business owners make.A must read for anyone thinking of starting a business in the catering trade.

This is a very compelling case for how to deliver exceptional service no matter what the product. The logic is clear, the execution is clear, and the writing about it is clear. I found it a very useful book. Nothing is surprising but Danny Meyer comes across as a an exceptional leader and someone anyone should be happy to work for.

Everyone in catering should be given a copy of this book to read before they ever step on the floor I have been in catering all my life and still find reading it inspires me to go the extra mile