One thing I always say is being a great chef today is not enough - you have to be a great businessman.
Wolfgang PuckRead
There is no value with just one restaurant or with one person. The brand has to be bigger than the person.
Interpretation
A brand's value derives from its ability to transcend individual influence, embodying a larger identity.
Wolfgang Puck emphasizes that a successful brand cannot rely solely on one person or one location; instead, it should represent a wider concept or idea. This broader appeal allows the brand to grow, connect with more people, and establish a lasting legacy beyond the limitations of a single restaurant or individual.
In practice
During a business seminar on branding, this quote can be used to highlight the importance of a brand's identity.
One thing I always say is being a great chef today is not enough - you have to be a great businessman.
I always tell people that they are really the critics. If people come three times a week to your restaurant they are the ones who find something they really love.
Restaurants are like having children: it's fun to make them, maybe, but then you have them for good and bad. You are going to have to raise them and if something goes wrong when they are 30 years old, they will still be your little boy.
I learn more from the one restaurant that didn't work than from all the ones that were successes.
A good chef has to be a manager, a businessman and a great cook. To marry all three together is sometimes difficult.
A lot of chefs are traditional and do it very well. But the ones who are the most successful are the ones who change things. That is why someone like Heston Blumenthal is a genius.
If Vancouver did not succeed as Starbucks from '87 on, our entire international business, which is now thousands of stores and a significant amount of growth and profit, may not have existed.
Starbucks is not an advertiser; people think we are a great marketing company, but in fact we spend very little money on marketing and more money on training our people than advertising.
I was never, ever interested in becoming a businessman or an entrepreneur. If I was a businessman, or saw myself as a businessman, I would have never gone into the airline business.
An important priority for me is a business must get their own house in order. Be or become an agent of positive change in your own enterprise and adopt responsible practices to eliminate the risks that often lie at the root of inequality and poverty.
Learn to sell. In business you’re always selling: to your prospects, investors and employees. To be the best salesperson put yourself in the shoes of the person to whom you’re selling. Don’t sell your product. Solve their problems.
The single biggest reason companies fail is they overinvest in what is, as opposed to what might be.
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