Article contributed by Mike Berman, COO, Day & Nite/All Service
Quoting Sun-Tzu for business purposes was played out several years ago, but every now and again The Art of War offers insights so very right for a given moment. “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is just the noise before defeat” is a Sun-Tzuism perfectly suited for hospitality’s very moment.
Leisure travel and entertainment continues to surge, early Mother’s Day returns show healthy restaurant receipts, highly cautious cities and states like New York and New Jersey are advancing aggressive full reopening plans, all creating the most favorable foodservice conditions since mid-winter 2020. Yet, it would be premature to declare total victory in the war against Covid-19, especially with the slower pace of US vaccines. Indeed, hospitality sits on a razor’s edge requiring fully engaged strategies and tactics to ensure restored prosperity and profitability. From Sun-Tzu’s perspective, with deadly pathogens like covid-19 our mortal enemy, today through at least Labor Day would be classified “As a general rule, those who are waging war should get rid of all domestic troubles before proceeding to attack the external foe”
From in-house corporate dining to business travel, lunches and gatherings, foodservice can’t expect much more than a slow route to victory without high energy and impact strategies and tactics. The industry’s most effective strategy must then include meaningful collaboration with business leaders signaling strong desire for employees returning to the workplace. JPMorganChase Chairman & CEO Jamie Dimon effectively declaring war on videoconferencing, coupled with other notable leaders like Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon questioning the viability of remote or even hybrid work, there is no more opportune time for hospitality industry leaders to develop meaningful partnerships with businesses of all types and sizes to welcome the workforce back to the world we all once knew. Offered not as a matter of partisan politics, the Republican Party’s mid-1990’s Contract With America is an outstanding model for these purposes.
As a strategy, Contract With America’s singular message resonated with the public and delivered unprecedented Republican gains at federal and state levels. Tactically, the program’s 10 well-defined points established principles and an agenda with clear-cut objectives. At the same time, the ensuing era of divisive politics we’re still dealing with, evidently getting worse, can be traced to the failure of actually delivering on The Contract’s many promises. At this critical mid-May 2021 moment, hospitality and the broader business sector’s Contract With the Workforce and Public can be isolated to one critical matter: safety. A collaborative Contract With the Workforce and Public to fully and permanently defeat Covid-19 and all associated fears about safety reflects Sun-Tzu’s “Without harmony in the state, no military expedition can be undertaken, without harmony in the army, no battle array can be formed”.
This vital plan must take the public’s very precarious mental state into account. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that between August 2020 and February 2021 rates of adult depression and anxiety have climbed from slightly more than 36% to over 41%. Of course those fears are fueled by raw fears for one’s safety in any public space and anxiety that the life we once knew would never return. Simply, when it comes to safety, taking all known and less obvious things into account, good enough will not be good enough to instill necessary levels of consumer confidence. Foodservice’s collaborative contract must absolutely go above and beyond the obvious, the now accepted routine of masks, temperature taking, hand sanitizer, physical barriers and everything that is now commonplace.
This less than 2 minute video captures the most significant highest-impact methods for cost-effectively going above and beyond those accepted basics to deliver unparalleled degrees of confident safety. Pay particular attention to the closing scene, and ask yourself which posted front door sign inspires greater confidence about attention to safety detail and concern for public health: “Mask Required” or “Safe and Certified Clean Air Purification”?
Now in its 14th month, at minimum this weekly column has been the Day & Nite family of companies preamble to its contract with foodservice and the greater market the company serves. Poised and committed to do more—truly delivering a most compelling collaborative business contract with the dining, travel and entertainment hungry public—email jbf@wearetheone.com so that we all enjoy fast and permanent victory over this war that has been waged against us by a virus. Regardless of where we are in the constellation of businesses, Sun-Tzu words “The establishment of harmony and confidence between the higher and lower ranks before venturing into the field” must be our collective, priority driving action.
