Siheyuan: Starting as a Chef Apprentice

After initial success in resolving procurement issues, Wang Jianye turned his attention to internal management.

One night after closing, he quietly went to the kitchen, and the scene in front of him made him frown - several large plates of prepared side dishes were poured directly into the trash can, and half a pot of soup was casually placed on the stove, and it had become slightly sour.

"Are these unusable?" Wang Jianye pointed at the trash can and asked the worker who was cleaning it.

The worker was shocked: "Boss Wang, these are all materials prepared according to the standard, and they have not been used up."

"Standards? Who sets the standards?"

“It’s always been prepared like this.”

The next morning, Wang Jianye called a meeting of all the chefs.

He asked people to convert the wasted food last night into money and put it on the conference table. The thick stack of bills made everyone silent.

“These are all the profits we have worked hard to earn.”

Wang Jianye's voice was calm, but it made everyone present feel uneasy, "From today on, we will implement the 'material preparation on demand' system.

Master Li, you are responsible for adjusting the stock quantity according to the booking situation."

Li Gang nodded, looking a little embarrassed: "It's my fault for not managing it properly."

“This is not the time to hold people accountable.”

Wang Jianye waved his hand and said, "Now we all need to work together to overcome the difficulties."

Optimizing staffing is trickier.

When Wang Jianye proposed adjusting the shifts and merging positions, several old employees came directly to him.

"Boss Wang, I've worked at Xuzhou Renjia for three years. Even if I haven't made any contributions, I've worked hard, right?" waitress Liu's eyes were red. "Now they say they want to reduce my shifts."

Wang Jianye poured her a cup of tea and said, “Sister Liu, you misunderstood.

It’s not about reducing shifts, it’s about optimizing shift schedules.

For example, when there are fewer customers at noon, we can reduce the number of waiters by two and use the time to make up for the peak period in the evening."

He took out a detailed shift schedule and said, "Look, after this adjustment, everyone's total income will not decrease, but the store's labor costs can be reduced."

Sister Liu looked at the form doubtfully, then her expression eased a little: "Then give it a try."

The most difficult negotiation was with the landlord, Lao Zhou.

This shrewd Tangshan native treats renting out shops as a cash cow, raising the prices every year.

Wang Jianye specially chose a weekend and visited him with two bottles of Moutai.

"Uncle Zhou, let's not talk in secret."

Wang Jianye filled Lao Zhou's glass with wine and said, "Business is hard now. If you raise the rent again, I will have to close the shop and leave."

Lao Zhou took a sip of wine and squinted his eyes: "Boss Wang, people who want to rent this place are lining up right now!"

"Yes, but there aren't many tenants like us who are stable and take good care of the house."

Wang Jianye took out a draft contract calmly and said, "How about this? We sign a five-year contract, with an annual increase of 5%, but the premise is that the rent is reduced by 10% now."

Lao Zhou sneered: "Do you think I'm stupid? Inflation is so severe now."

“Inflation will eventually pass.”

Wang Jianye lowered his voice, “But good tenants are hard to come by.

Last week, the tenant of the store next door ran away. Not only did he owe three months’ rent, but he also messed up the place.”

These words hit Lao Zhou's sore spot.

He hesitated for a while, then poured himself another glass of wine: "Five years is too long, three years will do.

The rent can be reduced by 8%, but the annual increase cannot be less than 7%. "

After two hours of tug-of-war, the two sides finally reached an agreement.

It was already late at night when Wang Jianye walked out of Old Zhou's house. He let out a long sigh and then realized that the back of his shirt was soaked with sweat.

The effects of the reforms were not immediate.

In the first month, although purchasing costs fell by 12%, the overall operation was still in a loss-making state.

During the most difficult times, Wang Jianye even used his personal savings to pay his employees.

When Xiao Liu from the finance department took the account book to him for signature, his hands were shaking: "Boss Wang, if you keep going like this."

"Hold on for another month."

Wang Jianye's voice was firm. "We are heading in the right direction. It just takes time."

The turning point came in the middle of the second month.

One day at noon, several customers in suits walked into the store and asked to see the boss.

Wang Jianye thought the other party was looking for trouble, but he didn't expect that the other party was the purchasing director of Tangshan Iron and Steel Plant.

"Boss Wang, I heard that your store has made great progress in cost control recently?" The director smiled and handed over his business card. "Our factory cafeteria is planning to reform. Can I learn from you?"

It turned out that the director's nephew happened to be working as a waiter in Wang Jianye's store, and he told his uncle about a series of reforms in the store.

Wang Jianye gladly shared his experience, which unexpectedly brought him an unexpected benefit - the steel plant canteen decided to purchase centrally from Wang Jianye's suppliers, and the scale effect further reduced costs.

By the third month, the numbers on the financial statements finally turned from red to black.

Although the profit margin is still not high, it at least proves that they are on the right track.

At the staff meeting at the end of the month, Wang Jianye gave everyone a red envelope.

“This is not a bonus, it’s a thank you.”

His voice was a little choked up, "Thank you all for not giving up during the most difficult times."

When Li Gang spoke on behalf of the employees, the eyes of this burly man were red: "Boss Wang, we should thank you.

If it was another boss, they would have laid off employees and cut salaries long ago, but you would rather pay for it yourself."

After the meeting, Wang Jianye stayed alone in the empty conference room, looking at the night outside the window.

They won the first battle in this cost breakthrough war.

But the road ahead is still long. Price fluctuations, market competition, and changes in consumption habits are all challenges that need to be faced.

He picked up a pen and wrote down the new plan in his notebook: central kitchen, standardized operations, employee training. Ideas flashed through his mind.

……

At six o'clock in the morning, the kitchen of the Tangshan branch was already brightly lit.

Wang Jianye pushed open the kitchen door and was confronted with a scene that made him frown - the head chef Li Gang from Xuzhou was loudly scolding a young kitchen helper.

"How many times have I told you! Cut the onions at an angle so that the fragrance can come out!" Li Gang held a handful of crookedly cut onions in his hand, veins popping out on his forehead, "In Xuzhou, you can't even be an apprentice with such knife skills!"

Zhang Lei, a young man from Tangshan, lowered his head and twisted his apron nervously: "Master Li, this is how we cut it here."

"You are here? This is 'Xuzhou Home'!" Li Gang slammed the kitchen knife heavily on the chopping board. The sound of metal collision was particularly harsh in the kitchen in the early morning.

Wang Jianye coughed lightly, and the two of them noticed his presence.

The anger on Li Gang's face had not yet dissipated, but Zhang Lei looked at him for help as if he had seen a savior.

"Boss Wang, you've come just in time." Li Gang grabbed a handful of chopped green onions and said, "Take a look at this. Can you call this knife skills?"

Wang Jianye took the chopped green onion and looked at it carefully.

Indeed, unlike the uniform slanting cutting method of the Xuzhou headquarters, the chopped green onions are of different lengths and the cut surfaces are not smooth enough.

But he noticed several fresh knife marks on Zhang Lei's fingers, which were obviously the signs of hard training.

"Zhang Lei, how long have you been learning cooking?" Wang Jianye asked gently.

"Half, half a year." The young man said in a voice as thin as a mosquito, "I worked as a handyman in a street restaurant before, and I never learned anything serious."

Wang Jianye nodded and turned to Li Gang: "Master Li, I remember when you first learned cooking from me, the chopped green onions you made were not as good as this."

Li Gang was stunned, and the anger on his face gradually dissipated, replaced by a hint of embarrassment.

Wang Jianye patted the two men on the shoulders and said, "Let's do this. Starting today, Master Li will spend half an hour every day teaching knife skills. Zhang Lei, are you willing to learn?"

Zhang Lei's eyes lit up and he nodded repeatedly.

Although Li Gang was still somewhat reluctant, he couldn't refuse his boss's honor, so he had to agree.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

As time went by, Wang Jianye found that the conflicts between employees in the north and south were becoming more and more obvious.

Old employees from Xuzhou complained that local employees in Tangshan were "lazy" and "unprofessional", while local employees felt that their colleagues in Xuzhou were "too serious" and "unkind".

The most serious incident was when front desk supervisor Liu Fang, a senior employee transferred from Shijiazhuang, threw the dishes returned by a table of guests in front of the waiter Xiao Li.

"Look! The customer said the braised pork belly was too salty!" Liu Fang was so angry that her voice was shaking. "How many times have I told you that people in Tangshan have strong tastes, but the saltier the better!"

Xiao Li was a native Tangshan girl, so she couldn't stand this grievance: "Why are you so fierce? You set the recipe, and we made it according to the standard. Now you blame us?"

The two quarreled more and more fiercely, and finally alarmed the entire restaurant.

When Wang Jianye rushed over after hearing the news, Xiao Li had already run out of the store crying, leaving a room full of customers and employees looking at each other in bewilderment.

After closing that night, Wang Jianye kept all the managers.

The conference room was filled with smoke and everyone looked unhappy.

"What happened today was not accidental."

Wang Jianye's voice was calm, but those who knew him well knew that a storm was brewing underneath this calm. "The biggest problem facing our store right now is not customer flow or cost, but -" he looked around at everyone, "the split of the team."

Xiao Liu, the financial director, pushed up his glasses and said, “Boss Wang, I think the main problem is that the standards are not unified.

Employees from Xuzhou will follow Xuzhou standards, and local employees will follow local customs."

Front office manager Wang Li interjected: “There are also ways to communicate.

Liu Fang has such a bad temper that she can quarrel with anyone."

Liu Fang, who was named, immediately retorted: "What's wrong with me? In Shijiazhuang, such service mistakes will result in salary deductions!"

Seeing that they were about to quarrel again, Wang Jianye knocked on the table: "Stop! We are not trying to find out who is right or wrong now, but to solve the problem."

He turned to Li Gang, who had been silent the whole time, and asked, "Master Li, what do you think?"

Li Gang put out his cigarette: "I think," he hesitated for a rare moment, "maybe we are indeed too stubborn.

Tangshan and Xuzhou are two different places.”

This sentence was like a key, opening the door to Wang Jianye's thinking.

He stood up suddenly and wrote the word "Fusion" in big letters on the whiteboard.

"Everyone, we can achieve a fusion of North and South in our dishes, why can't we do the same in team building?"

The following weekend, Wang Jianye organized a unique team-building activity - "North-South Cooking Competition".

He randomly divided the employees into four groups. Each group had to include employees from Xuzhou and Tangshan. The competition was to create an innovative dish that combined the flavors of the north and south.

At first, the grouping results caused a lot of complaints.

"Let me be in a group with Liu Fang?" Xiao Li looked reluctant. "She will definitely give me instructions again!"

Liu Fang was not to be outdone: "I don't want to partner with a novice!"

Wang Jianye was well prepared: "The reward for this competition is - each winner will receive a bonus of 500 yuan, and your innovative dish will be included in the special menu for next week."

Under the reward, there must be a brave man.

Five hundred yuan was equivalent to half a month's salary for an ordinary employee at the time, and the temptation was too great.

Each group immediately started discussing enthusiastically, and even the most incompatible partners had to temporarily put aside their prejudices.

On the day of the competition, the kitchen was bustling with activity.

Wang Jianye shuttled between the groups, observing how these employees, who were usually incompatible, were forced to cooperate.

What surprised him most was the group of Li Gang and Zhang Lei - the master and apprentice who once had an unpleasant argument over knife skills were now working together to study the recipe of a "soy sauce-flavored seafood flatbread".

"Master Li, I think you can add some shrimp paste."

Zhang Lei suggested cautiously, "We Tangshan people all like this when eating seafood."

Unexpectedly, Li Gang did not object immediately, but thought about it carefully: "You can try it, but the amount must be controlled so as not to cover the wheat aroma of the baked bun."

On the other hand, the combination of Liu Fang and Xiao Li is also getting better.

Liu Fang was responsible for mixing the filling, while Xiao Li contributed his family's inherited technique of making dumplings. The "Seafood Xiaolongbao" they collaborated on has taken shape.

"Sister Fang, do you think I can pinch these pleats?" Xiao Li took the initiative to ask for advice, which was rare.

Liu Fang took a closer look and said, "Not bad, but the opening needs to be tighter, otherwise the soup will leak out."

The competition lasted a whole day.

When the four fusion dishes were placed in front of the judges, Wang Jianye could hardly believe that these exquisite dishes were made by those employees who were constantly in conflict with each other.

In the end, Li Gang and Zhang Lei's "Seafood Steamed Bun with Soy Sauce Flavor" won with a slight advantage, but Wang Jianye announced that all participants would receive a 200 yuan encouragement prize.

"Today, I saw the best team of 'Xuzhou Family'."

Wang Jianye said emotionally, "It's not because of how good the dishes we made are, but because we learned to learn from each other and respect each other."

This event was like a key that unlocked the knot between employees from the north and south.

But Wang Jianye knew that just one team-building activity was far from enough.

The next day, he convened the management team to formulate a systematic reform plan:
The first is standardized training.

Wang Jianye personally wrote the "Tangshan Branch Operation Manual", which specifies every detail from food preparation to service process.

But what is different from the past is that the standard this time combines the advantages of both the north and the south - it retains the craftsmanship essence of Xuzhou cuisine and adopts the reasonable local customs of Tangshan.

"For example, when cutting green onions," Wang Jianye demonstrated at a training session, "slanting the knife does make them more fragrant, but if the customer specifically requests it, we must also respect local customs."

The second is rotation and exchange.

Wang Jianye arranged for Xuzhou employees and Tangshan employees to learn from each other's expertise.

Li Gang is responsible for teaching the core skills of Xuzhou cuisine, while local veteran employee Master Zhou teaches everyone how to process Tangshan seafood.

"Master Zhou, how did you remove the shrimp thread so cleanly?" Even the always conceited Li Gang couldn't help but ask for advice. (End of this chapter)