Friday, May 23, 2008

Innovation Notations

The recipe for whipping up a successful tech business

I have a confession. I’m a confirmed foodie. I love eating out and one of my startup ventures is a fine dining publication called Cork & Knife. I spend a lot of time in restaurants and have many friends in the industry. In addition to savoring many enjoyable meals, I have also learned a lot about business in my culinary adventures.

In fact, high-tech entrepreneurs would do well to take a few lessons from the restaurant industry. No, I’m not advocating that you go out and get a really big fancy stove or that you should stock your office with 100 different liquors. But sometimes decidedly low-tech environments like a typical restaurant can remind us of things that we might overlook in our fascination with the technology we’re developing.

Be wary of opening an Italian restaurant if the neighborhood has three already. It’s not that I don’t like pasta, but the point is that you need to be sure your offering is really needed by the marketplace. If you have your heart set on that Italian restaurant, you had better be certain that you have come up with a clear differentiator so customers know why they should walk through your door. The Internet world in particular is full of “me-too” ventures, which is not a good recipe for success.

Customers want consistency. When you visit your favorite neighborhood eatery or that famed four-star temple of culinary extravagance, you want to know what you’re getting. Line cooks in restaurants must execute the same dish well night after night. So, too, do you need to make sure that your company’s execution always remains at a high level so that your users and clients can count on you.

Empty seats are lost opportunities. No restaurant wants to leave tables vacant during dinner service. The high-tech equivalent is paying for too much capacity. Sure, you want to leave room for unexpected walk-in guests, but you also want to make sure you have right-sized your infrastructure.

Marketing matters. If you watch Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” television show — either the U.S. or U.K. version — you will notice that he almost always serves up a marketing program for the restaurants he helps to get back on track. Just as the bombastic Scottish chef does, you should seek guerilla marketing approaches before you pour a pile of money into promotion. The key is to identify your differentiator (you have one because you read the Italian restaurant bit above, right?) and communicate it effectively and consistently.

Some of the best cooking is the simplest cooking. The mark of a good chef is one who can take just a few ingredients and turn them into something magical. Home cooks and lesser restaurant chieftains hide behind a lengthy ingredient list to mask problems with their technique. As you create your high-tech product offering, keep in mind that something simple and good often beats an overcomplicated solution.

The kitchen opens at five and closes at 11. Diners want timely service when they take a seat in a restaurant. Your business needs deadlines and must deliver to clients and users in a timely fashion. More important, if you say you’re going to do something, you need to do it. No restaurant could tell their customers that the kitchen really wasn’t ready at five so they should come back in a few hours; high-tech entrepreneurs need to appreciate the need for promise fulfillment as well.

It’s all about service. Remember that your user base and clients are what you need to be successful. Whether you are providing a free service for millions or a high-touch, high-cost offering for just a few, those people must feel like they are being heard. Be sure that your customer service representatives provide the same attentive service with a smile, just as the best servers in restaurants do.

The cooks and servers matter. The front-line troops win or lose the battle for every restaurant, and they do for you as well. Be certain to hire good people, train them well, and help them continue to grow.

Perhaps the most important advice we can all take from restaurants is to enjoy ourselves. Successful eateries help people enjoy themselves, including the owners and employees. So execute well, then go have some fun at your neighborhood restaurant or watering hole.


 

Chip Griffin is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who serves as the CEO of CustomScoop, a media intelligence company based in Concord, N.H. He can be reached at chipgriffin@gmail.com.