Consulting Lessons from One of the Best Restaurants in the World
The Bukhara restaurant in Delhi is routinely voted the best restaurant in India, the best Indian restaurant in the world, and one of the top 50 restaurants of any cuisine in the world. I recently read an article that delved into the “secrets” behind its success. Believe it or not there are many lessons which are directly applicable to business consulting.
The restaurant did not get its top rating because of fancy decor. The style can best be described as rustic: diners sit on log benches and eat at rough wooden tables. There is no silverware or fancy place settings - diners eat with their hands at this restaurant. Bukhara takes no reservations, and the crowds regularly line up in the lounge waiting to get in.
Nor has this restaurant built its reputation through culinary innovation…the menu has not changed in 37 years. It offers a simple and straight-forward menu from the northern frontier that features mostly meats and breads, few sauces and even fewer vegetables.
So what makes this restaurant so special? Bukhara simply excels at execution.
Even though the dishes they create are similar to what one could get elsewhere, theirs just taste better. Some of this comes from using the very best ingredients. But most of it comes from the skill of the cooks.
The head chefs at Bukhara have been with the restaurant for more than 25 years. The kitchen is structured in an apprenticeship model, in which new employees slowly learn the craft of Bukhara’s menu and then spend a lifetime working in the restaurant to perfect it.
The kitchen has another interesting management practice.
In most restaurants, staff cook their own meals, often eating whenever they can between shifts. At Bukhara, the head chefs are the ones who do the cooking for rest of the staff, a great example of “servant leadership”. The chefs actually do the work instead of supervising!
The company that owns it is not worried about competitors trying to copy Bukhara, despite the simplicity of its concept. Even if one of the head chefs left to start up another restaurant, taking all that knowledge with them, the system and practices in the kitchen that support the execution of the dishes would not be there, and the competitor would not be as good.
What’s the lesson here?
The entire business strategy of the best Indian restaurant in the world rests on the ability to perfect and then execute what is otherwise a very simple and straight-forward product, something that would appear to be extremely easy to copy. But something that takes an extremely long time to accomplish.
In essence, the secret comes down to perfecting their simple recipes and cooking methods, codifying them into best practices that are retained within the organization and used as a benchmark for all training. Finally, it all comes together with flawless execution.
There are many parallels to the world of consulting, particularly the style practiced by M Squared Consulting. Our business model is built on being able to offer clients best-in-class project professionals from our Consultant Network. These are experts in their field who have made the career choice to be independent consultants. They’ve chosen to be consultants because they enjoy doing the work. Our consultants are world-class experts, who come in with the experience and best practices required to deliver results for our clients.
