That’s how “Vilka-Lozhka”, “Zhili-Byli” (“Pechki-Lavochki” now), “Etno”, “Boulevard”, “Macaroni” and a dozen of other food service establishments were born. There were more and more restaurants in the city, our ideas were being developed, replicated, and prosperous. I liked this kind of life: an interesting and creative business, high income, and an ability to live the familiar free life of a successful young man. Entertainment, pleasure, clubs, trips… I started travelling abroad and visited different countries. Our business went really well.
Simultaneously, I decided that it was high time to develop a management system, and went to Moscow – to study for an MBA degree and learn the modern craft of management. I had an idea to stop being an entrepreneur, and become a professional manager, who would be able to lead any business in the “right” way, however large it was.
Of course, the first thing that happened to our business was an expansion of our staff. While, de facto, we had almost no managers beforehand, and everything swam with the flow, now there was a huge interlayer between me and the business: marketing and management, many specialists in “this” and experts in “that”…
My personal time and attention span were too little to manage everything established yet. The administrative pie grew wider and higher, bringing nothing new to our business. On one hand, there was a feeling that a company with management is “right”, and everything was going as it should go. On the other hand, I understood that the company was dying down in front of my eyes. I was losing my influence. I was losing the feeling of the company – and drowning in the flow of bureaucracy! There was a fog of paperwork, separating me from real people and my own feelings of a developing business.
I continued supporting the “system” as a habit, but I didn’t understand why we need these plans, coordination chains, multilayer departments, and tons of reports. I didn’t even look through them!
Multiple instructions, internal orders and regulations, made a group of adherents turn into a bunch of obedient doers. Releasing the staff from their responsibilities regarding “what” and “how” they should do their jobs, I fully put all of them on myself.
At the same time, the flywheel of bureaucracy was moving faster, and the net expanded. 30, 40, and later 60 companies in 10 regions of the country. I stopped visiting the restaurants’ openings and started living my own life, while the business lived its own. I didn’t see our clients and guests, but only my managers’ reports. I became a little part of a huge managerial machine, and I didn’t own the business any more – it owned me. Moreover, the service quality and profitability were decreasing.