Lane Cardwell

The Genius of Norman Brinker

The Chapter 7 filing of Steak & Ale and Bennigan’s brought a lot of attention to the man responsible for their creation—Norman Brinker. Even though he had not been involved with the two concepts for over 26 years, Norman will forever be tied to them. For years he tried to put out of his mind what these two concepts had become. It hurt more than a little that the culture that he had worked so hard to instill had not protected these concepts from changes in ownership. In fact, the culture that he had instilled withered a few years after Norman left to run the still small Chili’s concept. A strong culture cannot survive a weak owner.

When people talk about Steak & Ale they mention a laundry list of innovations and flourishes that set the concept apart from other steak restaurants of the day. The salad bar. The English themed restaurant complete with costumed food servers and cocktail servers (a now extinct position within our industry due to minimum wage changes). The quality of the steaks, including a popular marinated steak, The Kensington Club. The small dining rooms within the restaurant that gave you privacy, even on a busy Saturday night. But mostly what people remember about Steak & Ale were the bright and shiny employees. They weren’t just there to work, they were on a mission. They wanted to make their leader proud, a man who told them repeatedly that they were capable of anything. And then gave them the opportunity to show it.

The genius of Norman wasn’t the many things that were visible to the customer. His genius was in assembling, nurturing, challenging, educating, motivating, evaluating, and coaching a team of people to achieve what he had dreamed. Norman was the consummate restaurateur. But he was an even better leader. While watching these Olympic games I always think of Norman the athlete. He competed at that level. He was a world class athlete that took those talents, and applied them to the world of business. Norman was on the Olympic equestrian team in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki.

Norman applied the principles of nutrition to his management team. Whenever he diagnosed something lacking in their leadership diet, he was quick to prescribe the right treatments. I was there during three eras of his leadership nutritional management:

Stephen Covey: Norman brought Dr. Covey into the organization repeatedly during the formative years of the organization. Norman had a highly-charged management team that didn’t play well together. Too much talent, too much ambition, not enough trust. This was several years before Dr. Covey published his best-selling book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. Dr. Covey was a frequent speaker at small group management meetings, and as a result of his teaching, the management team came together as a cohesive group.

Peter Drucker: Widely known as the father of modern management, the most famous of his 39 books on management was “The Effective Executive”. Coincidentally, this book was the foundation for much of Dr. Covey’s work in the Seven Habits. Norman brought Mr. Drucker on board to educate his newly cohesive management team about the principles of management. Listening to him speak inspired many a manager to want to learn more about management theory. It was like learning economics from Adam Smith.

Mike Vance: The former dean of Walt Disney University, Norman brought Mike in to help his team learn “out of the box” thinking. Big companies tend to stagnate when it comes to creative thinking. Size tends to squeeze out new ideas in favor of working harder on old ideas. Norman saw his team struggling with new ideas to solve new problems, and brought the concept of “storyboarding” to the organization. Mike’s techniques unleashed a wave of problem solving within the organization.

Along the way, Norman practiced what he preached. He was active in the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and utilized a lot of their resources and networking to help himself grow along with his company. But what I remember a lot was Norman behind closed doors in his office talking through business and leadership issues with John Batrus, co-founder of Batrus Hollweg, a leading talent gauging company for our industry. John acted as an executive coach to Norman, and Norman wasn’t shy about letting people know that if you wanted to improve as an athlete, or as a leader, you didn’t hesitate to get coaching. It worked for Norman as an Olympic athlete, and it worked for him as a leader.

Forget about the legacy of the salad bar, and remember the legacy of building leaders. Norman is a genius when it comes to people, and his people still call him daily for coaching and advice. And he always delivers.

Posted by Lane Cardwell on August 17, 2008 | Comments (9)