What the channel can learn from Gordon Ramsay

“Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, where the celebrity chef helps struggling restaurant owners fix what ails their businesses, just may be the recipe to help the IT channel shape up their own businesses,” says Simon Campbell-Young, CEO of specialist distributor Phoenix Software.

For those who haven't watched, the format is rather simple. Chef Gordon Ramsay, a well known celebrity chef with a number of successful (and a few that weren't) restaurants around the world, is invited to come to a struggling business and work with them to help repair the business, and it's all on TV.

He meets the owners, meets the staff, examines the kitchen and menu, and then starts making recommendations and changes.

While every business challenge is unique, patterns have become apparent. The problems are almost always the same:

* There are always people problems. Somehow, the owners aren't getting along, or they don't have a realistic view of their business, or aren't communicating.
* The food is always of lower quality - and the owners don't recognise it.
* The menu is almost always too large, with massive numbers of dishes.
* The kitchen usually is pre-preparing items, bulk cooking and then saving items - often wasting a number of them.
* Inventory isn't being managed well, resulting in significant cost.

Campbell-Young points out that Ramsay almost always has the same series of prescriptions to help the business - each of which can be translated into the business of the IT channel.

* Building a system to ensure high quality food is delivered.
* Simplify the menu, focusing on a small core of items that are of high quality.
* Focusing on fresh inventory, increasing quality while not stockpiling inventory.
* Help repair the communication problems around the owners.

“There's a certain core solution here that is consistent, and thus very prescriptive. In fact, these are basic business concepts. As I think about the channel, most of the basic problems it faces tend to be around the basics of business operation,” he adds. “Focusing on a small core set of products and making them easy to buy - your small menu - is a recipe for success. Evolved companies find that by standardising customers to a core set of solutions they are able to achieve economies of scale, drive profitability, and increase customer satisfaction.”

Building a standard set of processes that ensure your delivery - your food - is of high quality, is another key to success, he says. Mature businesses have found that by investing in process, they can grow and mature, on-boarding more and more customers while ensuring standards remain high. And, while resellers don't always necessarily have inventory (although some do), the idea of managing the cost of goods, particularly the investment in resource that isn't used right away, is important.

“And finally, people. Communication, much more than technology, is a problem in business. How your people communicate with the customer, with each other, with you, and vice versa, impact the business. A focus on improving communication goes a very long way. Kitchen Nightmares reminds me in each episode that basic business skills transfer across industries. Keep an eye out - being yelled at by a chef might be good for your business,” Campbell-Young concludes.