I think Gordon Ramsay is great. For those of you unfamiliar with him, he’s a world-class chef, entrepreneur, Michelin Star restaurant owner and the star of several reality tv shows, my favorite being Kitchen Nightmares.
When restaurants are failing miserably, Ramsay is called to save the day. He speaks with the owners, managers and employees, observes the kitchen and dining service, and then comes up with a plan to fix it all. He does all this in seven days.
Many times, the owners are resistant to change and it’s always interesting to see their reactions to his analysis on why the business is failing. More often than not, the owners don’t see themselves as part of the problem. They blame everyone else for why their business is not successful and are frequently seen kicking and screaming when solutions are presented.
The owners often want to hold on to a business model that might have been successful twenty years ago, a menu that’s far too cumbersome and inefficient, or they just don’t have any control over food costs.
One of the problems is that the décor of the restaurant is either outdated or unwelcoming and what Ramsay will do is bring in a whole crew to do an overnight makeover of the dining room and sometimes the kitchens as well.
Ramsay’s solutions are spot on and whether the owners agree or are reluctant to make the necessary changes is what the show is all about. Oftentimes, it will be suicidal for the restaurant to hold to its old ways. And when Ramsay revisits the restaurant after several months, those that adopted his changes succeed; those that don’t, die.
I think we need a Gordon Ramsay to stir things up in Washington. For the past two and a half years, we’ve seen a far left agenda fail miserably and yet the architects of that plan don’t see the reality of it all. As a restaurant that’s going broke, the government is a sinking ship.
As in a restaurant with over 100 items on the menu, the government cannot run efficiency when it’s trying to do too many things. Government needs to be stream-lined. You have agencies and bureaus during the same thing and redundancy in government is rampant. For example, there are more than 100 programs dealing with surface transportation issues, 82 monitoring teacher quality, 80 for economic development, 47 for job training, 20 offices or programs devoted to homelessness and 17 different grant programs for disaster preparedness. Another 15 agencies or offices handle food safety, and five are working to ensure the federal government uses less gasoline.
And unlike President Obama who just wants to tax us more but doesn’t want to cut spending, I don’t recall a single episode of Kitchen Nightmares where Ramsay tells the owners all they have to do is raise their prices. He will always find ways to cut waste and get rid of dead weight.
Wall Street’s lack of confidence in the administration is no different than the lack of confidence expressed by employees of the ownership of the restaurants Ramsay visits.
I think Gordon Ramsay would whip these yo-yos in Washington into shape but I don’t think he could afford to take the cut in pay. But, I’d sure like to see him try.
