In a NY Times interview Tyson Cole, the Japanese restauranteur, shared a keen insight about many restaurant owners who shun thoughts about adopting systems in their businesses.

Many restaurant owners feel that using systems would mark them as corporate ‘sell outs’.

In fact, Cole argues, nothing could be further from the truth.  Actually, there’s great value in adopting systems.

Tyson shared a key to success that should appeal to boutique restaurant owners:  ‘You get to be MORE creative when you use systems”  Imagine that.

Cole makes a good point when he argues that some start-up founders may feel (their) organizational efforts will take away from their creativity when, in reality, such systems actually encourage a business to be even more creative!”

“There’s a reason chain restaurants thrive.  Every one of them started as an individual restaurant with a great chef, a great concept, and a great location.  But they (also) developed systems that enabled them to build guest demand, retain key people and . . . make money!”  Without systems in a restaurant, it would have been impossible to open two locations, much less 200 or 2,000.

KEY POINT:
Systems . . . are a necessary component of a scaleable business.  If you’re not systems-oriented, you’re not growth-oriented, either!