The through-line
One thread runs through all of it.
In 1994 I walked into a small family restaurant in Florence. There was no menu. The owner told us we would love the food, because his mother was cooking. A year later I opened Riccardo’s on the Fulham Road in Chelsea, built on the same idea: simple Tuscan food, made properly, served without ceremony.
Running a restaurant teaches you how a business actually works, hour by hour. In 2017 I began working with Dr. Jeff Sutherland, the co-creator of Scrum, to rebuild how my team ran the room. Riccardo’s became the world’s first Agile restaurant. Turnover fell. Morale, customer satisfaction, and profits rose. We wrote a book about what we did.
Since then I have helped other operators do the same, and I advise on property in Palm Beach County, Florida, where I live today.
I operate first, then teach what I learned. That is the whole method.