Dr. Peter Chiaramonte
During Soviet times—thanks to its reputation as both the playground and vineyard of the union—Soviet citizens flocked to Georgia on vacation to take in the sights and to taste our famously full-bodied food and drink. Tbilisi today is alive with both a sense of its historic hospitality and a feeling of renovation. Everywhere the facades of crumbling buildings are being repaired, roads are being repaved, and foreign investors are helping to refurbish once degenerating eyesores into sparkling new restaurants, shops and hotels.
One popular stop on this road to social and economic rejuvenation: the buildings and neighbourhood surrounding the Hangar Bar and Grill—a sports bar for expatriates and Georgian clients who like to watch live rugby, football and Formula 1 auto racing. Located at 20 Shavteli Street, right behind Anchiskhati Church and the Ambassadori Hotel, the Hangar is painted pale Irish green and proudly flies the national flags of Ireland and Georgia. When first entering the bar, visitors are met with a barrage of autographed team jerseys, customer photographs, and the team banners of Liverpool, Chelsea, and Darlington—to mention only a few of the clubs. There are widescreen satellite television monitors in every room, and pictures and model airplanes decorate the walls and hang from the ceiling.
The Hangar serves Irish, Spanish-American, Italian, British, and Thai cuisine—everything from Beef and Guinness Stew and Corned Beef with Cabbage—to Crepes with Red Caviar and Pasta Mediterranean in Lemon and Garlic Sauce. The hamburgers all have international personalities and reputations: the Jacques Chirac, the George W. Bush double-cheese, and the Vladimir Putin. The Saakashvili is loaded with grilled onions and bacon. And the Shevardnadze comes without a bun—“like the national treasury…it’s missing.” But it is served with cucumber salad instead of fries.
The founder and CEO of the Hangar is the feisty and remarkable Rebecca O’Brien, who opened the bar—some would say “fittingly”—on Halloween in October of 2002. Rebecca is almost always around the place, talking to patrons and introducing people to people—making sure everyone is happy and getting what they want. And when it gets busy, as is often the case, Rebecca is there bussing dishes back to the kitchen and working right alongside her employees.
The waitresses are the best in town—friendly, attentive, attractive, and multi-lingual. Leaders exist at all levels of the Hangar. And that’s the point I am trying to make: Success in all organizations requires a “portfolio of leaders” all fulfilling and supporting different roles in the system. Rebecca only hires individuals who are willing and capable to accept the responsibilities of leadership—regardless of their formal authority or initial job description. Labour turnover rates are particularly high in the restaurant business. Coordinated individual talent is central to both creating and sustaining a competitive edge. This means, on the whole, that places like the Hangar rely on building a wider social capital that underpins the whole organization. The focus of all creative establishments must be on ensuring that everyone is up to speed and pulling their weight.
In many businesses, the performance criteria tend to focus almost exclusively on financial variables, such as profitability and shareholder value. But at the Hangar, there seems to be greater emphasis on the need to complement financial performance with other performance criteria—such as the delivery of customer satisfaction in an environment of friendly collaboration. It is also apparent that each employee has a set of values that mirrors the priorities of its founder. The leadership role is fundamentally concerned with integrating. Rebecca is the fastener between core parts of the operation—providing flexibility and clarity for others. There is no sign of the oppressive and often burdensome processes of bureaucracy here. The framework is one of individuals, team, and clientele all connected to each other and working in concert.
I’ve met people from every corner of the globe and walk of life at the Hangar—sportsmen and women, corporate executives, consultants, tourists, students, backpackers, and ordinary business people. People seated at the bar or outside on the patio are often overheard sharing stories about how long they’ve been in Georgia or how long they plan on staying. It is my contention that the more opportunities there are for visitors to Tbilisi to meet in such comfortable and pleasant surroundings—the better off we will all be in the future.
As Tbilisi seeks to revitalize its downtown, we must look to an emerging “creative sector” which includes educators, artists, designers, politicians, architects, and so forth. Recent studies, including work by Richard Florida (The Rise of the Creative Class) for example, have highlighted the growing importance of the creative sector to new economies and societies. I think it is relevant to note that organizations the world over are all turning their attention to building their employee brand, recognizing that they can’t build a successful external brand for clients if it’s not consistent with how internal staff experience the institution. A brand must represent the personality of the organization as it differentiates itself from its competitors. Staff I have spoken to at the Hangar tell me: “I choose to work here because it is a special place with special values I can connect with.” Treating its employees well can bolster a company’s corporate reputation, thus contributing to profitable new business opportunities that attract the very best employees, customers, and investors.
I am not alone in this opinion. In a new book by Frans Johansson, The Medici Effect (after the remarkable burst of Renaissance creativity in 15th century Italy that followed a wealth of funding by the Medici banking family) the author and business consultant suggests that whenever a diversity of people and disciplines traverse, innovation results. At the Hangar, for instance, people come from all around the world to mingle and intersect with each other’s viewpoints.
Here at the Hangar, enduring relationships and levels of passion and commitment are built around informal processes, networks, and relationships that emerge from the particular competences of individuals, rather than creating the structure and fitting individuals into predefined roles. Here we see the organizational structure emerging from the capabilities of individuals within the organization, allowing the potential and the performance of the organization to be maximized. For example, on one occasion where there was a sudden and unexpected flood of tourists—and the kitchen staff were quite literally overwhelmed by the sudden demand for breakfast—one of the regular waitresses who, as it turns out, is also a fabulous short-order cook, set to work immediately to meet the exigency.
To compete on a world stage, it is no longer simply about choreographing staff to do what you want them to do, but is instead about creating a trusting environment in which people feel respected, and are motivated to perform their best through an egalitarian exchange of ideas with colleagues. We must not forget that, in a sense, all organizations are public—even private businesses. Private enterprises and cross-cultural organizations must join hands and work together to bring about creative revolution. Not everyone understands the creative economy concept or the necessity to support it. Therefore, business institutions such as the Hangar can be exemplars in demonstrating how the creative economy works for the betterment of everyone—individuals, teams, and business partners alike.
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