Sharing is nice
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010I 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.
