I just came across an interesting post on Harvard Working Knowledge. Julia Hanna writes about a Harvard Business School case study that shows how Chef Ferran Adrià creates innovative customer experiences in his world-famous restaurant elBulli.
elBulli’s numbers are impressive:
Each year, some 2 million hopeful diners vie to be one of the fifty customers he serves each evening for the six months that elBulli, his restaurant, is open.
However, what struck me most about the article was Ferran’s focus on creating a unique customer experience. This includes a two hour travel from Barcelon to the restaurant on narrow, twisting mountain roads. Another example is elBulli’s mysterious reservations system. It’s more like a lottery system. If you are lucky to “win” one of the 8′000 available bookings a year, you are given a date and time to show up. This is everything else than convenient for customers.
elBulli seems to violate any common sense marketing rule (e.g. good location, listening to the customer, etc.). More interestingly, what elBulli does is also the opposite of the new “design thinking mantra” of observing customers and then designing services according to the gained insights.
In fact, elBulli’s magic and success ultimately lies in Ferran Adrià’s passion and his desire to create a one-in-a-lifetime experience. Now that takes real leadership! And in my opinion leadership is one of the most under-discussed ingredients of innovation. Other great examples of innovation leadership include Steve Jobs at Apple or Elmar Mock at Swatch in the 80’s.
I recently read Forbes article naming Jobs CEO of the decade for reinventing multiple industries’ business models, something the Mellon, Carneige, Gates and other industry titans failed to do. I agree with leadership being the secret sauce to great business models. A new business model often requires a company to cannibalize its existing business. Until leaders realize that current profits are merely lagged results from decisions made in the past, and ask what decisions today will generate future profits, they are unlikely to leave the tried and true for uncharted territory where new business models exist.
Kay, thank you for the pointer! Adding to your comment, I think is very difficult for people who are not at the very top (e.g. CEO job) to take on the kind of leadership that business model innovation requires. Few companies have organizational structures in place that give employees sufficient space to build innovation leadership. Those people who do try to lead innovation in organizations often have to take on huge career risks, which is not everybody’s game…
I like this case, it throws you out of balance on conventional marketing thinking. It is also a very good example of what is that we sell, ELBULLI is not selling food, they are playing their cards very well, according to their numbers. It will be a good exercise to develop the Value Proposition for this interesting restaurant.
This shows also that we need to be creative at developing market offers, that we need to know what is really generating the sales, in this cases mainly a thrilling experience, it remembers me of the poisonous fish that the Japanese pay a lot of money to buy, although some people day because of it every year, and it takes about a year to become a certified cooker.
Back in design school a teacher once quickly told us about the four main design mind-sets. I can only remember one, because its by far more alluring and seductive than the other three. It’s not systematic, its not replicable, it just is: Genius Design. Its the space between problem and solution that is instantly passed with apparently nothing other than some opaque thought mechanism and a few moments of contemplation.
Most students start out working with genius design and looking for inspiration, and slowly start to pick up on the sad truth of it: it’s creates predictable similar solutions over time, and it keeps strange office hours. They move to embrace systematic multiple-mindset thinking and begin using tools.
I see Ferran’s work as a “genius” design, if it’s design at all. And I think that’s kind of the interesting question…is there such thing as “genius design”, or is that label really just been a placeholder for unassisted and inspired discipline-free thinking all along?
Great article. What I gather the most out of the Bulli’s approach, is that the customer experience that they deliver on a consistent basis, creates such value for customers that it enables Ferran to implement a unique business model, one that works for his customers and his organization.
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That’s all because Ferran’s work is a statement and far beyond any “competition” or anything similar. And most likely Ferran did no market research or other kind of “analytical reserach”.
He just try to do the best.
When Corporations need to make a one-in-a-lifetime experience or any disruptive innovation, they need to communicate the business-model to all level collaborators, that is the way to make it happen. For incredible this simple concept means, I think that this is one of the most important reasons for business model transformation failed. The other one ? Business model is not the way we think, maybe we need to change the vision from specialized functions to Holistic Corporations
Enjoy the opening quote of the HBS Case on el bulli.
“Creativity comes first; then comes the customer.”
—Ferran Adria
I think we need to address a few questions to solve the “puzzle” of el Bulli customer relations:
- What is the prodcut/service offered by el Bulli?
- What is the unique value added of its product?
In order to gauge:
- Why customers are willing to pay with time, trouble, uncertainty, and money.
In my opinion, it is useful to compare haute cuisine compared with fine arts and the art business. Ferran Adria is not just a chef, he is an artist, and is/was considered the leading visionary of his craft.
Art is valued by its originality, its exclusivity and its rareness – as in one unique painting. Moreover, high status is associated with ownership of a rare artistic item. Art collectors travel great distances – some in busses – to arrive at desserted post-industrial urban locations to attend openings at “hot” galleries, and know that makeing a buy is by no means guaranteed. Often exhibits sell out before opening night to those with best network ties to galleries and dealers.
Visiting el Bulli is sort of consuming a piece of art in the making – you could call it an art based service business. What you get is one in an a life time experience, yes, but what is more important, you got something that thousands of other wannabe customers – and millions of dreamers without willingness/ability to pay will envy you for quite some time. You attended the very rare and exclusive exibition of haute cuisine at its highest at the rocky shore by Roses, where Salvador Dali lived and many artists of yesterday roamed.
What i think is unique about Adrias innovation and business model:
- Creating a new meaning of haute cuisine by turning mundane and cheap or low status ingredients into something so advanced, like “spherification” of apple juice. Its witty and magic.
- He is also democratizing consumption of haute cuisine in two ways.
1) He abandoned the traditional spanish cuisine altogether and became competitive with the french on his new terms. You do not need to know all the complex tastes, dos and dont’s of haute cuisine to experience this – its new to everyone and moreover: everybody knows the taste of apple juice.
2) Turning reservations into a lottery changes the game from being in the right network to get a table into a fair chance for everyone interested, not just the VIPs. If you really want to – may you need to save a little – but you have a chance of beating the in-crowd to the finish and become a “collector” of that unique hihg-status experience.
Everyone interested in innovation should read the HBS Case. The resarch, experimentation and documentation activities of the chefs team is incredible. Its both art and science.
The real trouble for a creative business model like el Bullis is how to capitalize it. Books, brand extension, what can you do with limited man hours by the “star” chef and a brand sensitive to exploitation?
Its really the same with management books like Business Model Generation. Do you create a community like Alex has done (a public good and a great collaborative innovaiton resource) or do you license your model and make official consultants pay training/usage royalty like Blue Ocean Strategy authors have done?
Best,
Jacob