Alex Brennan-Martin shares his management philosophy

A scion of one of foodservice’s most distinguished families shares his management philosophy

By Scott Hume, Executive Managing Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 8/15/2004

Alex Brennan-Martin is a co-owner of Brennan’s of Houston and a member of the third generation of a family--including his mother, Ella Brennan, an owner of Commander’s Palace in New Orleans--that is synonymous with top-quality restaurant operations. In his recently published “The Simple Truth About Your Business” (Bright Sky Press, 2004), written with Larry Taylor, Brennan-Martin outlines development of the back-to-basics management style he has adopted at his restaurant.

Q. Running a restaurant no doubt keeps you very busy. What led you to write a book on management and leadership?
A. Some time ago I had what you’d call a mid-life management crisis. I realized things were getting more difficult rather than easier and that the traditional ways [of doing business] had been successful, but weren’t really getting us to where we needed to go.

The book is about my journey, about the process of trying to get closer to the truth of why our customers do business with us and how we tried to eliminate all energy [in the restaurant] except about that.

Q. You write that you “hit bottom” in 1998 and called together the Brennan’s of Houston staff to reassess how you were doing business. What was it that made you know changes were needed?
A. It wasn’t one thing; it was a lot of little things. You don’t wake up and say, “Gosh, I’ve put on another pound.” It’s that moment when you realize you’ve put on 15 pounds. I think that what happened is that over time I had gotten a little stuck in my ways. Life was good.

Q. You offer many suggestions for simplifying and focusing restaurant management. Is there one piece of advice you give that you most wish you’d been given years ago?
A. I realize now that I wasted a lot of energy--not just personal but management energy--on things that, at the end of the day, customers don’t really care about. It’s an easy trap to fall into.

Q. Give me an example.
A. Accounting. I’m not saying that anyone shouldn’t pay attention to their bottom line, but I found the less energy I spend on that sort of thing and the more on being “keeper of the flame” of our philosophy of simple truths the better our results have been.

Q. Why do businesses often come undone? What are the biggest pitfalls?
A. The No. 1 problem is the “us versus them” mentality. Very quickly management and employees can find themselves pitted against each other. In part it’s the adversarial nature of our workers’ comp system and other factors that [does that].

Employees want management to do what it says it’s going to do and to stop just talking about it. [Failing to do so] breeds contempt and mistrust that poisons the well. That’s everywhere in business. And one of the byproducts of our effort [to adopt the Simple Truths philosophy] has been to get an awful lot of poison out of our system.

Q. Is the success of your philosophy at Brennan’s of Houston a testament to its commitment to paying close attention to its customers?
A. It’s not just us paying attention to customers. More importantly, it’s getting our employees to be attuned to customers, to wanting more out of their jobs than just getting a paycheck. Pride has been the real secret ingredient. As we have managed for pride, we have gotten an incredible response. We see it in reduced turnover and improved profit per customer.