I’ve been watching a show on TV called ‘Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares’. The show has become quite popular, so much so that it has been brought forwards to a better timeslot and is now shown twice a week. In it, world-famous chef Gordon Ramsay comes into failing restaurants and works with the owners and staff to turn around their fortunes. Whilst the show is famous for the amount of profanities that Ramsay uses, concentrating on a bit of yelling looks past the appeal of the show.

Everyone likes a fix-it Television show these days, whether it’s improving your house, losing weight, or in this case, returning a restaurant to profitability.   In all cases, the formula followed is much the same from show-to-show, and in the case of ‘Kitchen Nightmares’, that’s no different. This is the rough formula that Ramsay uses to turn around a failing restaurant:

1. Observe the staff at work and taste the food to work out what level they are operating at, and what are the obvious weaknesses and strengths
2. Observe the chef’s technique and inspect the kitchen
3. Convince the chef that they are on the wrong track, and that continuing on in the same manner is going to produce the same result, which will lead to failure. Sometimes this isn’t easy to do, and where the profanity often begins, as head-strong chefs need to be knocked down to size by one of the best in the business. 
4. Freshen up the restaurants appearance
5. Design a new menu, always concentrating on simplifying the dishes, using the best ingredients available for reasonable cost, playing to the restaurants strengths and finding a ‘niche’ product that the restaurant can become known for.
6. Invite a series of locals in for a restaurant re-launch and re-opening night
7. Consolidate the improvements over time, with a emphasis of the chef/owner taking responsibility for success and taking things seriously.

And that led to the thought : this is a standard formula for sprucing up any business, not just restaurants. Let me re-state the process, using generic terms:

1. Observe the running of the business and determine the obvious strengths and weaknesses
2. Observe the owner’s technique and inspect the ‘engine room’ of the business
3. Convince the owner that they are on the wrong track and things need to change to get a different result
4. Freshen up the business appearance and get rid of any old clutter.
5. Come up with a simplified product offering. Cull any products that are not selling, simplify the product range and come up with either improvements on existing products or entirely new products altogether
6. Invite opinion-makers to review the new products and offerings
7. Consolidate improvements over time, make sure the owner takes things seriously.

About the only thing missing from this is having someone who is a known subject matter expert yelling profanities at you to break you out of a stupor.    Of course it helps having a team of staff and a camera crew in your face to make things happen, but if things aren’t going to plan, you could do worse.

In the case of iFinity.com.au, I’ve been going through some of these steps since the start of the year prompted a rethink on many strategies. This was totally unrelated to TV watching, those thoughts have come along since. But I may re-review my review of how this business operates, along the lines of the formula I’ve laid out above.