Posts Tagged ‘conglomerate’

Sharing is nice

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

I met recently with a restaurant client and four of his managers to review the latest set of financial statements for each of their locations.  One of them was a bit newer than the others.  He had a very good handle on food costs, but he had been working to get his labor costs down and more in line with those of the other stores.

The owner has a bonus program in place which rewards the manager who attains the lowest percentage of combined food and labor costs over a certain time frame.  Competition between the managers is pretty keen.  It’s no ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ or anything (”First prize is a Cadillac Eldorado.  Second prize is a set of steak knives.  Third place is you’re fired”), but the owner dangles a fairly lucrative carrot.  As a result, you might expect them to guard their cost-control and cost-cutting methods like rabid ninjas.

Actually, they do anything but.  All freely offer their ideas.

Is it Altruism?  I think that partly explains it.  They’re all good people who want to see each other succeed.  Stroking the boss?  Maybe a bit.  Selfish?  That likely plays a part, too.  Better performance from store A means more money in owner’s pocket, and an increased likelihood of a spillover effect into stores B, C, and D.  Regardless of the reasons, it pushes the notion of the benefits from sharing your knowledge.  Too many individuals in organizations, be they a local restaurant or a mega-conglomerate, protect their intellectual capital turf.  Share the knowledge.  Help your colleague.  Reap the perks.  Increase shareholder wealth being only one of them.