" The secret is to make sure the business is running to perfection , with or without me "Gordon Ramsay founder of Gordon Ramsay Holding
He may be known in the UK for his Michelin star-rated restaurants, but Ramsay is better known the world over for being the confrontational and brash host on the television shows Hell's Kitchen and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Those shows are just two of the business interests controlled by Gordon Ramsay Holdings, of which Ramsay owns a 69 percent stake valued at £55 million. A successful entrepreneur, Ramsay has come a long way from his time as a boy who dreamed of nothing but football.
Ramsay was now 19 years old and beginning to develop a strong interest in cooking. He found himself more interested in the art than he had ever been with football, and began to think seriously about a career as a chef. His start in the industry might have been a complete accident, but Ramsay was now determined to chart out a new course for himself.
“When you start spreading yourself too thinly, you can fail to meet the same standards the second or third time round,” says Ramsay.
1-Standards Are The Staple of Any Business :
Ramsay knows that not every restaurant can afford to have the same calibre of ingredients or the same skill in preparing them that he has. But, that is not the measure of its success. For Ramsay, whether a restaurant is serving French fries or his own sweet potato, spinach and feta frittata, it has to maintain a high calibre of service if it is going to be successful. As he said “When you start spreading yourself too thinly, you can fail to meet the same standards the second or third time round,”.
2-A Strong team leads the trail to tomorrow:
Ramsay also knows that as head chef, it is his role to guide and help teach those who work under him. It is only by educating them and challenging their abilities that they will remain motivated and eager to work for him.
3- Do not let your business become static:
“Keep moving all the time,” says Ramsay. Without the proper attention paid to the changing times and new trends, your business could easily fall by the wayside and lose ground to its newer competitors. Ramsay suggests that a company that loses its focus and tries too many new things at once will also find itself confused and slip off the radar.
4- Discipline yourself so your customers do not have to:
Ramsay’s achievements, he also keeps his confidence in check, making certain he never gets too sure of his success. “I get scared every day, twice a day – before lunch and before dinner Customers vote with their feet ,they don’t ring you up and say, ‘By the way, I had a mediocre lunch. I’m not coming back.’ They just don’t come back… They come back for that magic, that excitement, that level of perfection, and that's not easy to achieve. It's a fight to get there.” He says .
5- Standards :
“One thing we’ve never done – and I think it’s crucial to the success of the business – is taken customers for granted,” says Ramsay. “.
6- Leadership:
“From the minute a customer picks up the phone to make a reservation to the point where he or she receives petits fours, it's a huge team effort, So now, I suppose, I'm a player-coach.” Says Ramsay knows that he is only as strong as the people behind him, so he goes to great efforts to train them, challenge their abilities, and make them feel like a valued part of the team.
Ramsay also serves as an independent consultant, has made guest appearances on everything from CNN to The Simpsons, and has written thirteen popular cookbooks. He has been called the most influential person in the UK hospitality industry.
