Oldendorff Centenary Book - Flipbook - Page 13
THE REVOLUTION THAT
STARTED IN THE KITCHEN
Why should Oldendorff be satisfied with substandard
ideas and methods? If there is a better way, we are
expected not just to find it, but to insist on it.
A tea-strainer. Ein Teesieb. A humble item, but also one that a young CEO
Henning Oldendorff held up in front of some 50 Oldendorff employees at
the Mövenpick Hotel in Lübeck in September 1985 to explain an extremely
important principle.
Henning said: “This is us. This is what we are at the moment.”
The tea-strainer was past its best. It had been repaired many times. It was
stained, ineffective, and frankly unhygienic. It was held together with tape.
Henning’s point was that, despite its condition, it remained in use. No one had
spoken up to say it wasn’t good enough. It kind of worked and, for Oldendorff
pre-1985 that was good enough. Not any more.
Henning believed that people needed to question the way they worked. Having
taken over from his father in November 1980 at the age of 23, he was keen to
implement a more forward-looking philosophy. He wanted Oldendorff staff
to speak up if they found a better way of doing things. In return, he would
always be ready to listen and to try those ideas.
It was not good enough to carry on using the same tools and methods as
we had always done. Henning saw this as an unhealthy sign of complacency
that had crept into the company: “Der Wurm ist drin!” This needed to be
eradicated. A successful company was one that challenged the way things
were done, yet questioning convention was often met with defensiveness
or – worse still – hostility. It didn’t have to be revolutionary: all it took was
to be unsatisfied with the average and to constantly look for better ways of
doing things. Various shortcomings were addressed at that internal seminar
in 1985, which Henning intended as a wake-up call.
There was clearly a better, more effective, more hygienic way of making tea,
yet no one was looking for it. There was also a better, more customer-focused
way of doing business.
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