Turns out we can learn a thing or two from those cheeky Brits behind the Posh Cheddar and Pickle sandwich.
But first, a confession. Back in those heady days when one actually worked in an office teaming with, well, what’s the word – teams – I was a proud Pret power user. Dead chuffed to be known as a regular. Two, sometimes three visits a day, easily four days a week. From my London location in The City, I could pop out to one of 25 Pret A Manger stores in a 10 minute walk. I loved the variety, the quality, the convenience, the speed. While it wasn’t cheap, it wasn’t wince-worthy, either.
So, what’s the office lunch when there is no office?
That’s the singular challenge for the 37 year-old sandwich and coffee chain, thoughtfully examined in the NY Times recently under the headline “Pret A Manger Will Try Anything to Survive.” Check it out here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/business/pret-a-manger-london-pandemic.html
The top-to-bottom, end-to-end examination of their service profit chain is pretty incredible but most impressive to me is Pret’s enterprise-wide shift to a new mindset. Re-inventing products and ideas for new delivery systems, tapping untapped markets – these are things and goals and are perhaps solutions to the problem, but it’s the collective shift to a mission – engagement – that actually gets sh*t done. I love the way Pret has adopted experimenting with lots of “small, low risk” ideas all at once. That’s how to power through. Bravo!
Purpose (Why?); Mission (What? Where?) are just signposts on the horizon line until an organization starts living them. In our work with clients, the How is where things generally fall apart. Lack of a cohesive strategy. Failure to align responsibilities and tasks. Absence of a measurement system. These are the usual suspects when someone asks why the Vision that looked so blue sky and rosy on the whiteboard never made it to Results.
Bringing “Pret to the people” is the new mission of the brand. And if I were still in London, an Avocado Pine Nut Wrap would be showing up on my doorstep right about now.
Jon