The Story of the Chef, the Respected Gentlemen and The Millennium Meals
Monday, May 18th, 2009I heard this metaphoric explanation of the benefits of outsourcing skills as opposed to trying to achieve everything your business needs to do through employees; thought I’d share it with you, so here it is. I’d be interested in any thoughts or comments.
The Story of the Chef, the Respected Gentlemen and The Millennium Meals
A respected gentleman had a plan to hold a dinner party each month to celebrate the year 2000. In order that he could create a fine meal for each of his guests, he hired a chef to work in his kitchen, guaranteeing him employment for a whole year. The chef is considered to be a ‘good all rounder’ at international cooking, which is ideal because the meals are to reflect the different cultures of the world.
At the first meal all invitees attend, expectations are high. The meal meets expectations and the evening goes O.K., the guests leave.
At the second meal there are a few ‘understandable’ cancellations and expectations are still high. The meal meets expectations and the evening goes O.K., the guests leave.
At the third meal half of the invitees cancel. The meal meets expectations, but those that attend seem to leave earlier than at the previous meals.
And so it goes on, with more and more cancellations.
By the time of the sixth meal, there is just the respected gentleman (who clearly has less respect now than before) and a man named Nigel.
The respected gentleman says to Nigel, “I don’t know what went wrong. Every month has had a different theme, I hired a good chef, the food always meets expectations but no one attends my parties anymore.”
Nigel replies. “I have been to every party and you’re right, you have a good chef, his meals always meet the expectations of those that attend, and that is your problem.”
The respected gentleman looks confused. Nigel continued.
“Your chef is not a specialist in producing any of the meals, because they represent a variety of different cuisines from all over the world and, because he has guaranteed employment, is under no pressure to improve; he lacks the skills and motivation to raise expectations and exceed them each month.
“Expectations have lowered and with them the standard of food being prepared has lowered. Your chef simply met the expectations he himself had lowered.
“Had you challenged a different chef each month, a specialist in the cuisine he was preparing, he would be motivated to do better than the previous month’s chef and constantly seek to improve. Your parties would have exceeded expectations and your guests would have kept attending.”
The respected gentlemen realised his mistake, he paid the chef for the rest of the year as he was contracted to do, then asked him to leave. He hired a new chef for each of his final parties. Nigel was right, the parties improved dramatically, confidence in the parties quickly returned and the respected gentlemen was respected again.
The moral of the story is that outsourced resources have specialist skills that are not always available from employees and, because they face fierce competition, are commercially motivated to produce truly exceptional results every time.
Richard Jebb
www.wordsthat-work.co.uk