Another day of after-dinner-talking with Ryan.
The Taiwanese Owner
We talked about how he used to work at a Boba place, and there he experienced two very different management system, with surprising results.
Ryan started working there with a Taiwanese owner. He was very strict on his employees, and made it a really big deal on making a lot of profit.
Boba/Restaurant is quite a competitive business after all, with no significant profit, after a while. Taiwanese owner sells the business, who is Korean.
The Korean Owner
The second boss (which we will now call the Korean boss) is a well-off person. He wasn’t looking for anything in return for this restaurant, just a reason to immigrate into the US with this investment.
He doesn’t care about the employees, profits, or the Boba place. On top of this, he already has intentions to sell the business after the immigration papers are confirmed.
However, because the employees know the Korean boss doesn’t care, they take food from the kitchen for themselves and give them out for free for their friends.
Employees enjoy working there. Because they have freedom from stress, fear, and micro-management.
The employees start making good connections with customers. And eventually, word of mouth got around and the business goes well. Profit starts rolling in, and the idea of selling the business also subsided.
What a leader should be
As a business major, we were taught to maximize profit. But this strategy did not go well with the Taiwanese owner.
Ironically, with extremely lenient management from the Korean owner, the Boba place became a profitable business.
This made me think back on what a leader should be.
At the end of the day, I believe it boils down to leaders providing a safe/comfortable environment for their followers, instead of focusing on goals and profit that undermines them.
