Ever since I was a senior in high school I have worked at a charcoal chicken restaurant that I will call Big Rooster for privacy purposes. Since I'm in school, I only really work during our thanksgiving, winter, spring, and summer breaks, but prior to that I would work almost every day as a senior. There I gained my first real experience working for a small business. Since then, I have also worked for bigger businesses like known clothing stores etc. However, the purpose of this blog post is to focus on the structure of small businesses since that is where most of my experience comes from.
The first thing I want to discuss is the lack of job description for those who weren't cooks or dishwashers. Unlike big businesses, small businesses tend to have a more flexible "job description," meaning that I never really had one title. I had to clean tables, take orders, and sometimes deliver. Normally in a bigger business you basically do just one job. You either stock something, cashier, or you help out customers. Very rarely do you do all three in the same shift. However, every day I clocked in at Big Rooster I always expected to do a little of everything. If my boss told me to go up front and help take orders, I would do it. If I was tasked with delivering food, I would do it. If people were leaving and I was told to clean the table and get rid of the plates, I would do it. I never really knew what my job was, but I enjoyed the change of pace. This could also have to do with the type of industry Big Rooster was in, that is, the food industry. But that is a topic for a different blog post.
Another thing that I noticed when working at Big Rooster was the lack of hierarchy. Normally in a big business, there's the employees, a supervisor or assistant manager, a store manager, a boss, and then there's the corporate ladder. Big Rooster was far from this pyramid. In fact, everyone was an employee and there was only one boss. Since at the time there was only one Big Rooster (now there are two) this type of structure made sense, and it still does. Why bother hiring a manager when the boss showed up to work every single day? This also made it so that the customers felt like they had a personal relationship with the restaurant since at any moment they could talk to our boss for whatever reason.
Lastly, I also noticed that the customers were far more amicable than those at a big business. I think it also has to do with the structure of a small business. At a big business, the customers have expectations of how the place should work every single day, to the point where they feel entitled. However, at a smaller business the customers understood that mistakes happen and they wouldn't throw a huge fit since they realized that the boss has put everything he has into that one place. If the place went under, the boss would pay the ultimate consequence. So usually the customers were a lot more tolerant of mistakes and they were by far a lot friendlier than big business customers. Again, I think this has to do with the structure of a small business and its ability to connect more easily with the customer. If mistakes did happen, all they had to do was talk to our boss instead of having to go through multiple departments and people like they would at a bigger business.
All in all, I think the structure of a smaller organization is more efficient than that of a bigger business. In addition, I think the structure is more beneficial for the customer, and easier on the employees.
Thanks for the post. Let me give a general remark first and then a bunch of more specific comments.
ReplyDeleteIt would be good to provide more context for the reader (me) about the nature of the business, without giving away the name of the company. For example, is your hometown a suburb, a small town, or something else? What sort of competition does Big Rooster face? Are fast food restaurants competition? You referred to Big Rooster as a charcoal chicken restaurant. I haven't heard that expression before so wasn't quite sure. Also, you situated Big Rooster within the Food Industry, but that is quite broad. There are different segments. Could you situate it more precisely in one of those?
Now some details. You used the term- boss - and you also used the expression manager. For may subordinates, their manager is their boss. I'm guessing that you mean owner, where you said boss. Some owners operate their businesses.
Others hire somebody else to manage the business.
You talked about the lack of hierarchy and that was good. But you only briefly mentioned that there is no a second restaurant, so the boss could only be at one of them at time. It made me wonder if somebody else was next in command and became the manger when the boss wasn't there. Is that how it worked?
Then you talked about friendly customers. Is this because they frequented Big Rooster on a regular basis and knew the folks working there? Repeat business with known customers is quite a different thing than one-off business with customers who are essentially anonymous.
The last thing you might have talked about is why you took the job and why you stayed with it. Did you like the work? Were there alternatives you might have pursued? Those issues might have been brought up in this piece.
I found it interesting how you mentioned that customers were more understanding of errors due to the fact that it was a small locally owned business. This seems to be a common occurrence, and could offer one explanation as to why many larger corporations have begun to try to connect with local communities where their individual stores are located. This attempt to connect can be seen by donations to local charities, hiring local labor, and buying from local distributors. One example of this is Walmart's Community Grant Program, which is a program that gives grants to local organizations in need. It will be interesting to see if this "big-business trying to appear smaller" approach will have a significant impact in the customer relations, and sales, of larger corporations.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting how you mentioned that customers were more understanding of errors due to the fact that it was a small locally owned business. This seems to be a common occurrence, and could offer one explanation as to why many larger corporations have begun to try to connect with local communities where their individual stores are located. This attempt to connect can be seen by donations to local charities, hiring local labor, and buying from local distributors. One example of this is Walmart's Community Grant Program, which is a program that gives grants to local organizations in need. It will be interesting to see if this "big-business trying to appear smaller" approach will have a significant impact in the customer relations, and sales, of larger corporations.
ReplyDelete