Customer Reviews

Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter

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What does a $100 per person, prix fixe', 7 course gourmet dinner have to do with your business? Everything, if you believe Paul Clarke.

For those who might not know, Charlie Trotter's is an award-winning restaurant located in Chicago. I haven't yet been able to save up the $300 needed to eat there, but, from what I hear, it's an experience you'll not soon forget.

Back to the book -- this is a tough call. I like it. I hate it. I can't make up my mind. And maybe that's because it's almost like reading three different books.

First, it's a semi-bio of Charlie Trotter: his restaurant, how he runs it, his marketing strategies, his continual quest for excellence, his ongoing mission to make the dining experience in his restaurant extraordinary.

Secondly, it's an examination of how you can apply the pursuit of excellence to your business. Both these aspects make it an interesting read.

Then there's this underlying, ongoing discussion of having employees 'buy in' to your vision for your business. Though Clarke emphasizes rewarding this loyalty, and Trotter does so, I can say from my own experience, it just ain't so!

I found myself talking back to Clarke as I read. My husband thought I was going gaga. But I was so angry!

Much of what Clarke says feels manipulative to me. When I was an employee I was an excellent employee. I was the one who came in early, stayed late, did whatever it took, asked for more responsibility -- in other words I played the game.

It seems as though all the suggestions favor the employer rather than the employee. And this is where I get bogged down. I'm torn.

As an employee, I was used & abused too many times by the companies I worked for. And I know I'm not the only one.

But, as a small business owner, I'd want my employees to act exactly as Clarke suggests. It feels wrong, although I can't put my finger on exactly why that is.

I suppose any book that elicits this kind of response must be read. That's my recommendation to you. If you hate the management advice, you'll love the discussions about food, wine, & the restaurant experience.

As a management consultant to top companies world wide (Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, IBM, GE, Abbott, PepsiCo...) I read a minimum of 120 business books every year, and have since 1989. My personal library is nearly 3,000 volumes and I would put "Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter" in my top 5 for books on understanding what it truly takes to build a superior business.

I agree with another reviewer that you will likely not find any ideas that are shockingly innovative, but what you will find is a clear and detailed description of the business philosophy that has allowed Charlie Trotter to create one of the most respected restaurants in the world. You will also see that the fundamental strategies that Charlie Trotter focuses on are absolutely 100% transferable to any business that is serious about achieving excellence in their industry.

I have recommended this book to my clients for years, I use Charlie Trotter as a case study in many of my workshops, I have applied the ideas in this book directly to one of my other companies (an advertising firm I own) with tremendous success, and I have dined at Charlie Trotter's restaurant to verify that they actually live the ideas in this book... and they do!

If you are genuinely serious about building a business that is passionate and disciplined in striving for excellence - this is a must read.

John Spence
www.johnspence.com

I found the book to be void of any new leadership "Lessons" and to be particularly skimpy on any real "Lessons from Charlie". Ok, so someone leads each guest to the restroom and checks to see that it's in order and his servers wear double-stick tape on their shoes. But other than those two specifics, there's just no Charlie Trotter flavor to the book. (And, I'd personally be totally uncomfortable having someone follow me to the ladies' room every chance I got up. Can't they straighten the room on someone else's time, not while I'm waiting to use it?)

The book talks about Trotter's passion, but fails to explain or illustrate his inspiration and execution. The book is dull, with no feeling for the fire that incents Trotter. I'd love to know how he goes about changing the menu every day. There has to be a process to his creativity, not just the outcome. But we're left with nothing.

For the first time in my life, I threw the book away. There was no one I could imagine who would be willing to waste the time I had on the book.

As a big fan of Trotter and his innovation and creativity, I was excited to read this book. Unfortunately, it's just not very good. Mr. Clarke uses a notion or two per chapter that Trotter has applied as a successful entrepeneur, then boils it down, oversimplifies it, and creates tedious little pop quizzes of the "rate yourself" variety. It's as if he doesn't know whether he's writing a do-it-yourself workbook or a study of business. Clarke's very intrusive and heavy-handed, and this blunts the force of the good observations he does make. All in all, Clarke's interpretations of Trotter's wisdom lack the ring of authenticity of someone who's actually done what he espouses. This would be a lot better if it was actually Trotter doing the teaching.

I happen to find this book very interesting. It gives you some insight as to how Charlie Trotter runs his restaurant in Chicago. For anyone who knows of this restaurant, you will know how successful it is and how much pull Charlie Trotter has in the restaurant business. This book won't teach you how to become a better person in life, but what it will do is teach all of us how to be more effective in the workplace. We all think we know the best way to run a business, but the truth is you can't do any of it without a great team of minds to assist you along the way.

This book was very informative. I, for one, always wanted to know some of the secrets myself about this place. The restaurant hardly ever drops the ball when it comes to providing a great dining experience.

This book would be great for managers, VP's, and directors of any company. Not just the restaurant business. It explains how to treat your workers with respect and how to also tighten the ropes when you need to get things accomplished sooner than you already are without killing the integrity of the worker.

All in all, a really good book. Buy this if you are a fan of the restaurant or would like a good idea of how the place has run over the last 12 years.

This is both an interesting and boring work, due to the insights shared from Charlie Trotter's success. The boring stuff is the repitition of common-sense advice which everyone knows but few implement habitually. This is what separates the mediocre from the excellent.

Trotter maintains an atomosphere of excellence, from his hiring practices to discipline to innovation to publicity, etc.

One can certainly take much from this work to ponder about possible adaptation for one's own enterprise.

Charlie Trotter, what a great chef and entrepreneur. This book is for the People who want one day to own a buisness. Reading this book gives you the aspects of running a restaurant and being the best. Having passion for this line of work, he cant stress more. Without passion for food or being sucsessful it will not work. Charlie Trotter gives great lessons in excellence, from hiring anf firing, to running a kitchen without rasing a voice

If you work with customers, run a small business, or manage others -- read this book. It will challenge many of your beliefs about what true excellence really is. I've had the pleasure of visiting Charlie Trotter's restaurant a number of times and it was a breathtaking experience every time. Reading this book gave me insight on how much focus, intensity, and passion is needed to create true excellence.

Don't underestimate the wisdom that lies between the lines on every page of Paul Clarke's book "Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter." This is not a book about the culinary world; neither is it a book about restaurants. It is a book about execution excellence; about leadership and teamwork. It is a book about vision and in creating and then recreating a business over and over again. Importantly, it is a book about keeping very close to your customers and ultimately, it is a book about passion.
To me, the strength of this book lay not in the expansion by Clarke into the general field of business or marketing (although he does that well) but in Clarke's ability to uncover the wisdom of Trotter. `There's no such thing as the word `no.' Whatever you can do to blow someone's mind - you go for it." Such is the philosophy of Trotter and Clarke certainly blew my mind continuously throughout the book.
Trotter opened his Chicago restaurant in 1987, approximately 5 years after the launch of the book "In Search of Excellence." The 8 basic principles outlined in the book would appear to be engrained in Trotter's business philosophy but there are 3 additional principles which I would suggest the lack of which has probably accounted for some of the companies mentioned in "In search of Excellence" falling foul of success. They are `Passion,' `Reinventing the business,' and `Attention to detail.'
Clarke uncovers Trotter's passion and it is that passion that drives everything that he does. Trotter reinvents his business every day through changing his menus and his attention to detail is phenomenal (for example, having different design plates for every course). Despite being in a totally different industry, I found that I could not help but compare my approach to my business with that of Trotter's and I would be honest in saying that there is much I need to do. In reading the book, I felt I was rubbing shoulders with the Master, that he was in fact looking over my shoulder guiding me as to what I should be doing. Such is the fluent style of Clarke.
If you manage a business or run your own business, then this book is well worth a read. If you want to rise to the top of the corporate ladder, then you will also get alot out of this book. But do not just read the lessons outlined, understand them and adapt them to your own business because they are adaptable. I have always believed that if I learn something everyday, then it is a day well spent - reading "Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter" I have a surplus of days under my belt.

The book is great if you know food, especially restaurants and customer service. It turns out that not many people know both and that even less people know that it makes a difference in business. It took me a few years to observe what is said about Lessons in Excellence from Charlie Trotter. Lots of meals in restaurants and a few conversations with waiters and cooks (not chefs!) It turns out that what Charley Trotter tried to do with food sounds simple. Actually, Trotter is following in the tradition of mostly French chefs who made an art out of eating. This tradition going back about 200 years is interpreted all over the world. Here in Israel, the last decade people, mostly restaurant and hotel owners, are "suddenly" noticing what good service does to business. Finally, in this rough & raw country, with all it's troubles, people realize that a customer is someone to serve.
I would recommend this book first as a reference. Read it once, put it away and APPLY what Trotter does. Then go out and start looking and asking people what they do about service. In the good cases, you see restaurant become "overnight success" and a great business. I have a few favorites that amaze me every time I go, this goes for years. In the mediocre case restaurants (or hotels) start out with good service and slowly spiral down. Then their business goes away and they wonder why. In the bad case, you keep a really annoying server and your business dies. Even in the best locations in Tel Aviv I see examples of businesses die because of ONE waitress! It happens. Imagine what happens when the food is served cold or even uncooked properly? This happens in insurance companies, government offices and shops on a daily basis. As a contrast, read "The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong" which essentially has the opposite argument. People eventually become ineffective. I do not believe in both theories 100%, essentially people can be trained AND managed to become great service providers or to become miserable ones. That's what makes life great!