King's Entrepreneurship Lab reposted this
My father was a street food vendor. He rested one day a year—first day of Chinese New Year. On the second day, he would haul me from home into the warm and grimy world of his hawker stall. He sold prawn noodles. It was near impossible to get extra helper during the festive holidays, so he converted me from son to slave. The rest of the hawker world took the chance to rest their aching feet and arms. But not my father, who had the crazy idea that it was the best time for business. He was right. It was the busiest day of the year. His was the only stall open and not surprisingly, hungry residents nearby pounced eagerly and early. My father was an avuncular man of few words, much like most Chinese men of that vintage. They worked hard, took care of their family and kept out of trouble. But every year on that second day of Chinese New Year, I saw him morph into a Prawn Noodles General. He was clear and firm. He broached no dissent. And more importantly, the world obeyed him. Let me explain. On any normal day, at the prawn noodles stall, we offer three types of noodles. You can choose yellow noodles (mee), flat white rice noodles (kway teow), vermicelli (bee hoon) or a mixture of any two of the three. Occasionally some customers request for a mixture of all three which we would happily obliged. With three sizes available - small, medium and large, there is as many as 21 combinations. All these choices disappeared when the Prawn Noodles General appeared once a year. He decreed that there was to be only one version: yellow noodle with vermicelli, and large. Take it or leave it. Most took it, ate it and loved it. It was one of my first business lessons in life. To cope with high demand, standardisation translates into efficiency, which means serving more customers faster. Here’s why: My father churned out bowl after bowl in rapid succession without having to pause to listen to me shouting out the orders. The orders were all the same. On my part, as an order taker and server, I just had to remember the sequence of customers and how many bowls each ordered. The beauty of this strategy is there was never a mix-up of orders as everyone ate the same thing. But on quieter days, my father would encourage his regular customers to bring their own big prawns and best cut of meat for him to cook... for free and add to their noodles. When not busy, customise; when busy, standardise. This is applicable to our lives too. I standardise what I wear; I customise my speech to each audience. I standardise what I eat; I customise my book to each market it was published in. I standardise the hotels I stay in; I customise my approach to each of my coaching clients. I shared the above story at a fireside chat at University of Cambridge. My father would never have imagined his hawker lesson would one day be shared at a top business school. cc: Prof Kamiar Mohaddes and Jan-Patrik who invited me Photo by Christian Pietrulla #66smallactions