Welcome to Nightmare on Ramsay Street: Print 21 magazine article

Your attention please. After the great success of his show, Kitchen Nightmares, it has been announced that international super-chef, Gordon Ramsay, is starting a new reality TV show called Pressroom Nightmares and Peter Barnet has been engaged by his management to start the ball rolling and look for willing candidates. Read on to apply ...

Have I got your attention? Seriously, as I am currently a great fan of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, I was thinking how I could translate the message into some real advice for the business owners in the graphic arts industry. Each week I am on the edge of my chair as, over the 47 minutes of airtime, Gordon manages to show a restaurant owner what they have to get right to run a successful business.

Sure there is theatre and the PR power of the 'F' word to help us watch it but, in most of the cases, the owner and staff acknowledge that the changes recommended by Ramsay were something they knew deep down had to be made. They had just done nothing about it although, in some cases, they had almost been forced to close the business.

So, my task for you is to write down the one thing that you must get right in your business, no f&$#% excuses, by the end of 2008!

Interestingly, not all answers to this question are obvious ones, such as "make more money".

BA does on time departure
Sir Rod Eddington, who gained respect from 2000-2005 when he turned around British Airways from a poorly-run government airline into a well-respected global airline, answered this question by saying that all he would focus on was on time departure. He knew that if BA could get this right then a lot more would fall out of this goal. Suppliers such as maintenance and catering would have to be on time, the airline would face fewer airport taxes and costs, customers would be a lot happier, and staff morale would turn around. He knew all these factors would lead to an ultimate improvement in profit.

For the first three years after he became CEO, Eddington flew from airport to airport leading his people in getting this one thing right. Gordon Ramsay tells us every week that the meals have got to go out on time. If they are eating on time and the meal is hot then they are halfway there. Interestingly enough this is one of the key priorities for Virgin Blue staff in Australia also. They have a giant time clock that counts down as soon as the plane docks at the gate. Everyone knows the drill and they have been awarded Australia's most on time airline for the last three years. If Sir Richard can learn from Sir Rod maybe we can all take this on board? Imagine as a print business if we just focused on delivering on time.

Davenport undies does distribution
When ex-advertising executive Clyde Davenport launched Davenport underwear in 1987 he took the retailing world by storm. Davenport knew this would happen so he worked on one main thing only prior to the launch - distribution. I remember hearing him speak in the mid-90s about how his dream was to take the marketing principles of the leading food companies with which he had been working and apply them to simple commodity items. One thing he had noticed from all his work with the food companies was that the distribution chain was set up correctly and there was always sufficient stock to meet demand. This was one thing he discovered was lacking while researching the underwear industry and he made this his one key thing to fix first because he knew if he got that right everything else would work. There was no point if the product looked great and people wanted to buy it if they had run out of stock.

Should the 'one thing' be longer term strategic or short term problem fixing?

The answer is it doesn't really matter. It just needs to be something that you consider to be your pressroom nightmare and that you know deep down is affecting the success of the business. It could be a major problem, such as the wrong people, or a lazy business partner, or a major machine that isn't working well enough, or an unskilled sales team. It could be part of your business process that customers or your people are forever complaining about. You know it's the issue if you hear comments such as, "Don't discuss problem X, that is a no-go area". If you hear this, then guaranteed it is a 'go' area and could be your next pressroom nightmare. It should be addressed once and for all.

The issue can also be a longer term strategic issue, such as entering a new market, or starting a new product or service to your customers that you have been talking about for some time but haven't addressed yet.

What's stopping you?
Chances are that the issue you have written down on a piece of paper has been talked about many times. What you need to do is consider all the excuses, barriers and problems that have stopped you addressing the issue. Write down the top five reasons why you haven't fixed the problem, or addressed the opportunity. These reasons or excuses will continue to stop you, unless you develop action plans to deal with them.

For example, Eddington found that one of the reasons why planes were late was that local airport managers weren't assertive enough with suppliers. His action was to coach each local manager to ensure they understood what he wanted, and how they needed to be more assertive. It's no use just talking about the goal. You have to get down and dirty as a leader and drive the change. Super chef Ramsay tells us this every week also.

Get some support and help
It is often hard as business owners to turn our own habits around. We are also often busy working in the business and not on it. We need some support to get our businesses to change and I guess this is why the restaurant owners call in Gordon Ramsay. If you can't be the Gordon Ramsay in your business then here are some tips:

* Remember without a plan you are just a tourist driving a bus so produce a plan on the one thing that you want to fix or change. Put in your target date to have the issue addressed as 31st December 2008.Then work backwards and note the things that you have to act on between now and December, ensuring that you write down target dates and initials of those who are responsible for acting.

* Get a mentor or advisor (Gordon might be busy). This person could be internal to the business such as a leader from another area, or someone outside the business. Having someone to be accountable to increases the chances that you will do the things you say you are going to do. Also you will find that two minds working on a problem are a lot better than one.


Now that you have identified the one thing that you have to get right in your business to avoid a 'pressroom nightmare' this year, make sure you identify the barriers, develop a plan, and then make yourself accountable Gordon Ramsay-style, perhaps with a bit less swearing!

Now those who want to audition form a queue to the left ...