The art of the pivot: How one business owner navigated change during the pandemic

Our values were in place which made our pivoting a bit easier. It sounds tacky but our first value is product value, great experience, and great service. Second value for us: let’s be local and involved in our community… every dollar that was spent in our restaurant stayed in our city. Our head office is at the end of the hall, not in Mississauga or Kansas City. Our third value was people: we’ve all worked for terrible managers and been treated terribly. Let’s be the bosses we always wish we’d had—let’s make sure the people who work with us get the respect they deserve, feel valued, and give them opportunities to grow.

It forced us to re-evaluate what experience we can still offer to guests but the very first thing was ‘how do we keep our staff safe?’ If you think about an original hierarchy, it is: ‘let’s make money, let’s create great value and have a great brand, and let’s have great people. Suddenly we had to flip that pyramid and our staff’s health was the most important thing. Then it was: let’s make sure our brand is trustworthy, and if we can make any money this year, that’s a win.

It’s more of a mindset. One thing that I feel that drew me to this industry are that no two days are ever the same and there always challenges popping up to rise to. So there was this ability to react but also to, sort of, see what’s coming and be proactive about challenges. That’s a mindset that already existed.

It was emotionally traumatic. But we have some tools and skills that drew us to this industry to begin with. So we had to create a solution that brings our experience to them, the customer. Rather than greeting at our door, we drive across town and leave at their doorstep. That’s one way we’ve been able to pivot; how can we still host when we don’t have a space? How do we bring our experience to their doorstep?

So, we fired Skip the Dishes and hired back half our staff as drivers. Now we’ve got our own staff serving people—it’s not on a plate, there’s not a fancy cocktail and there aren’t any candles—but you can get a sense of normalcy of our brand and experience. You can’t train Skip the Dishes drivers to have a little promotion spiel at the door. There’s just little things you can do to put your brand in a 30 second drop off.

Absolutely. One thing that is something we’ve been pushing in the last ten years is ‘support local’. The dollar that you spend goes so much farther locally then going to Walmart, or Winners, or Tony Roma’s. And you see that now: they’re gone. They all packed up and left—they didn’t stick around to see this through. They were never invested in this community.

Employees don’t always want to be your best friend… they want you to respect them. They want to take ownership and they want opportunities. I provide them with the tools and get out of their way.

During COVID they need to know they are cared for as people, not just as employees. One thing I’ve learned during this year about the power of leadership is your ability to make decisions with as much information as you have and to be accountable to that. There were decisions we made that we knew were going to impact our restaurants and our staff for years to come but you have to be able to make a decision. No one knows the outcome. It took a lot of courage as leaders to do this— we just didn’t know what was going to happen.

I remember thinking ‘if only Pip had 20 more seats it would be perfect’ and being too stubborn and too vain if people called and asked about takeout—we were busy enough as it was and I certainly wasn’t going to make our food stoop to the low level of takeout. Two minutes before that I was sitting thinking ‘how do I get more space in the restaurant?’

The very first time we turned on our system for takeout after COVID, we were so busy, we had to turn off the computer. This is how dim I was about the whole thing: I was looking for more seats in my restaurant,  and the whole time I was completely blind that the internet is an infinite dining room. You can have as many orders as you can handle…

I’m not above any new ideas to be thrown at our business. That was a humbling moment for me.

There was a surge in [the buy local movement] in the last year since the COVID lockdown. People waking up to being like ‘You know that favourite restaurant you love to go to on Friday night? If you want it to still be there when this is all over, we’ve got to keep supporting them.’ People really started to recognize the pride of what Edmonton has to offer.

If I never have to hear the word ‘pivot’ again, I’d be okay with that.