Fatal Assumption

I like to see businesses flourish, especially in my home town, Ohakune, New Zealand where business confidence wavers while uncertainty remains around the future of the local ski-fields. Recently a new restaurant/ takeaway opened with much promise. Hats off to the owners for giving it a go in the current climate. We tried it out last week only to be disappointed, not with the food which was enjoyable enough, but with the experience. When I went to order a takeaway, there were no printed menus, so I had to stand in the middle of the restaurant behind seated patrons scrutinising a short menu (with no prices) hand-written written in chalk on a dimly-lit blackboard on the wall. ?I made my order and said I’d be back in twenty minutes. I had to provide my own food containers, presumably to cut down on paper waste. When I returned my order was waiting for me on the counter. I went to pay with my card only then to be told that the restaurant only accepted cash! After a quick trip to the ‘hole-in-the-wall’, I asked ‘how much?’ I was told they had a ‘pay us what you think it Is worth’ policy. I replied, ‘how can I? I haven’t eaten my meal yet’. Eventually we agreed a price after some haggling and I left. That experience doesn’t encourage me to return, which is unfortunate.

?Like many small start-ups, it seems these restaurant owners may have made the ‘fatal assumption’ as identified by author Michael E. Gerber in his excellent book ‘The E Myth’: namely, assuming that because they understand the technical work of a business, they understand how to run a business that does technical work; in this case, chefs assuming they have the skills to run a food business. As Gerber wrote thirty years ago, it is the root cause of most business failures.

I hope this restaurant isn’t going to be the latest to fail. While I did offer feedback via their social media page, I’m not confident they will take any notice. Maybe I should lend them my copy of ‘The E Myth’ before it is too late?

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