Serving Excellence

As a teenager, I worked a lot in hotels, including as waiter, barman, kitchen staff, even housekeeping.?I thought I’d be following in my father’s footsteps and have a career in the hotel industry.?Alas, I ended up in transfer pricing.?But I always maintained a keen interest in the hotel and restaurant industry.?And so occasionally, I watch YouTube videos about hotels or restaurants.?I recently came across this one that I really enjoyed. Take a look:

Watching all the food prep made my mouth water.?I’ve never been to this restaurant, but I've added it to my list.?More importantly, the story of this restaurant holds some universal insights that apply to all service businesses.?It reminded me that my early work experiences as a waiter or barman taught me some important lessons that have helped me throughout my consulting career.?

So what stood out to me from this video?

The first thing are the people - not just the Executive Chef, but his entire team.?These are clearly highly-skilled people that have gained a level of excellence in their field through specialization:?the Grill Chef, Paddy, who has grilled millions of steaks; or Mo, the master of triple cooked chips that take three days to make from scratch; or Pastry Chef Carla, the secret weapon of the restaurant.

Being able to coordinate a team of over 70 people to cost-efficiently deliver a high-quality product to almost 300 guests every night requires more than just highly experienced people.?It requires a well-honed and detailed process such as weighing out & labelling the individual steak cuts. ?The process is supported and refined with continuous “after action reviews” - every day the team meets to talk about the night before – want went well, what didn’t go well and then to incorporate those learnings into the service the next day.

Lots of restaurants have great people and good processes. To stand out, especially in the crowded New York City steak house market, you need to add some innovation.?In this case, it’s the use of the Turkish-style charcoal grill.?But it is not enough to have great, unique technology, you need people that know how to use it right – and Paddy clearly does.

Despite all these great ingredients, they still constantly quality check. Certainly, Chef Matt’s quality checks seem far more fun than the ones in my line of business.?But they never rest on their laurels and constantly check to make sure they meet and exceed their own high standards.?

Sustainability is the great buzzword these days. ?But in restaurants, using all parts of the product – whether its beef or vegetable is good business as it gets the most value out of your product.?Whether it’s the trim or bone marrow – value is extracted from every part of the cow.

So what does any of this have to do with transfer pricing??Successfully delivering global transfer pricing documentation projects is based on the same ingredients that drive success at a restaurant: an experienced team, well-honed processes, unique technology, a dedication to quality, and the ability to extract all value from the compliance effort.

At KPMG, we have structured our global documentation services around these element.?Our Apogee team is made up of people with deep experience in delivering global documentation services.?We have developed detailed processes and leverage our own Rapid Process Improvement (RPM) approach to constantly improve. Our TP Engine technology is best in class.?We have many (albeit not as tasty) quality checks built in trough-out our process.?And we believe in using all parts of the information we process– not just to prepare transfer pricing reports but to gain new insights through process and data mining.

People, process, innovation, quality, and sustainability – these are ingredients not only for a successful restaurant but for any service business aiming to deliver excellence. At KPMG, they are part of our DNA.