David Loewi started as a porter in 1976 and has now been voted the most influential person in hospitality 2016 by the LLA. David and his partners operate a £100m/yr business. I had an unprecedented opportunity to ask David some pressing questions from our entrepreneurial community.
Some of the questions asked in the Youtube interview above:
- What made David different, allowing him to achieve such success?
- What beliefs did David have which were different from the average guy?
- How to keep focused without getting stressed?
- How do you make a good hire?
- How to overcome self doubt?
- How to avoid the comparison trap?
- How to create a premium brand?
- How to survive the first 3 years of business?
- How to know a new restaurant will be a success?
- How would you start all over again?
Below Please find David Loewi’s Bio & A Full Transcript of the Youtube Interview
David Loewi Biography
David Loewi is the Deputy Chairman of D&D London, which owns and operates over 30 leading restaurants in London, Leeds, Paris, New York and Tokyo, in addition to the highly acclaimed South Place Hotel in London.
CEO Des Gunewardena and David led the buyout of Conran Restaurants in September 2006, including iconic restaurants Bluebird, Le Pont de la Tour and Coq d’Argent. They have since overseen new ventures including the German Gymnasium, South Place Hotel and two sites in Leeds.
David completed his education in Switzerland before moving to London, where he spent time at Claridges and Hyatt International in both London and the Far East, as well as gaining experience on luxury cruise liners, which taught him how to organise and cater to huge numbers. In 1995, David joined Conran Restaurants and successfully managed Mezzo in Soho (the building now houses 100 Wardour Street restaurant and lounge), before holding a number of senior positions, resulting in his appointment as Managing Director of the group in 1998. Two years later, he moved on from Conran and set up the highly acclaimed Wolseley restaurant, before returning to join current partner Des to lead the management buyout of Conran and create D&D London. In 2014, David was also appointed as Chairman of the Restaurant Association, part of The British Hospitality Association.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
David Citron:
How do you build and operate a 100 million pound per year business? I went into London to find out…
Intro:
Twice a guest judge on the UK hit show, MasterChef, David Loewi is the co-founder of D&D London, a group of luxury restaurants, bars and hotel across London, Paris, New York, and Tokyo. Today D&D London owns and operates 35 restaurants, one with a Michelin star, and an award-winning hotel. D&D has aggregate revenues of over 100 million pounds per year and employs over 2,000 staff. I caught up with David at his award-winning South Place Hotel, a luxury London five-star, complete with its own Michelin star restaurant.
David Citron:
David, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. We’ve got a whole entrepreneurial community of people who are aching to find out about your journey. Maybe you can start off by just telling us a little bit about your story and how you came to do what you’re doing now.
David Loewi:
I started as a porter carrying bags in The Bull Hotel on Gerrards Cross, and making sandwiches in old people’s homes and things.
David Citron:
How many years ago was that? Not to date you.
David Loewi:
150 (chuckle) ..I was 18 so.. 40 years ago. I was carrying bags in The Bull Hotel and loving it, enjoying being a porter. I just enjoyed really doing whatever I was doing. Then during the Princess Diana and Charles wedding, I was at Claridge’s – Probably the very best hotel in the world to go and work in. Where every important person, from anyone from the Reagan’s to any of the dignitaries were coming. We didn’t have enough flagpoles in the hotel to house all the dignitaries coming in. Again, that was a really exciting start into the hotel and restaurant business.
I then went into international hotels, so I worked with the Hyatt International and was sent over to the Far East to do some training with them. Worked in the Carlton Tower Hotel in Knightsbridge, which had a Michelin star and worked my way up really, from a duty manager and then ended up as banqueting manager, which was great fun. Creating amazing banquets, doing a lot of Middle Eastern work, Jewish work, and making a name for myself for really bringing in some great business.
David Citron:
A lot of people started as a porter or something like that, but they didn’t get to where you are. What was the difference with you? What pushed you to go further? What made you noticeable to be picked out? What was going on there?
David Loewi:
I think who can ever say, I mean it’s some luck, and opportunity, and drive. I had a lot of ambition. Not ambition financially but ambition to succeed and whatever I’m doing, I wanted to do the best. When I was a kid I had an amazing model railway, and I used to create mountains and just create things and I used to enter into competitions. If you’re doing something and really, really enjoy it, first of all, you’ve got to enjoy it, it’s not just a job. It’s got to be a way of life, whatever you do. I think then that it’s about striving for success and doing things really, really well.
David Citron:
Was there a turning point where you could see that things were moving to the next level?
David Loewi:
No-
David Citron:
Was it incremental?
David Loewi:
No, but I think if you speak to a lot of the great entrepreneurs, you know, Sir Terence Conran and Richard Branson, they don’t look and say oh we’re incredibly successful. They’re still striving to make their businesses better. A turning point, I mean yeah, I took opportunities and they worked out. Now with D&D, we’re striving to open more restaurants, open more hotels, create more. You’ve never arrived.
David Citron:
Makes me think of what Steve Jobs has talked about, which was if you’re going to do well, you’ve got to be passionate otherwise you’re crazy for sticking in it for so long and pushing so hard.
David Loewi:
Yeah, precisely, I agree. That’s right, ‘I did great and I’ve arrived now… Let’s relax.’ You’ve never arrived.
David Citron:
Right. Are there any beliefs that you have that are a little bit different from the average guy on the street that you think have actually distinguished the work that you do?… Made it exceptional…because it would have needed to be exceptional to get up to level that you are at. What are the beliefs, or is there a particular belief you could pin down?
David Loewi:
Yeah. First of all I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great people and learn from them. Travel, so you’re constantly seeing new ideas and new things. Really I think what makes someone in my area more successful is that absolute attention to detail and wanting it to be the best and not take second best.
David Citron:
Right. How do you maintain that focus without moving into the fine line of stress, or what some people would experience as stress?
David Loewi:
I can only do the job I’m in now by having fantastic people around me. I remember, I opened Mezzo 20 years ago, which was Europe’s then largest restaurant with 2,000 customers coming through a day, with 200 staff. I mean, it was big. Sir Terence Conran came to me and said, “David, fantastic, well done. It’s amazing.” I honestly thought well, why are you congratulating me? I’ve got an amazing chef, John Torode. I’ve got all these amazing staff. Let’s go and congratulate all of them because it’s a team effort.
You can only strive towards success if you can enthuse other people for your vision and bring people along with you. The business that I’m in today a collection of 35 different businesses. They’ve all got people, I hope … and that’s the only way I can work, who care passionately enough. If I can enthuse them and make sure that they understand the vision..that will carry it forward and then carry that all the way down the line.
David Citron:
How do you make a good hire in the first place? How do you find good people is a big question coming through from our entrepreneurial community?
David Loewi:
How do you find good people? It’s getting tougher and tougher over the years, especially now with this Brexit threat over us all. It’s going to make it even tougher because we want people to come into this country. The restaurant business, the hotel business, probably the construction business, and the retail business are all extremely worried at the moment because it’s about attracting great people. Our business, it’s a bunch of buildings but the people inside them make the DNA of the business.
That is the biggest challenge one has in this business, is people. That’s why you have to be better and better at looking after good people, attracting good talent. We are a very exciting business, opening new restaurants, opening new hotels, opening new nightclubs, opening outside event businesses, so constantly we need the best chefs, we need the best managers
First of all, how do we attract them? There aren’t so many companies who are doing such exciting things as we are, opening like crazy. Next year we’ve got two restaurants in Leeds are opening. One, which is a Japanese where we’ve attracted a fantastic chef from Zuma, their top chef. We’ve got Aster opening in Victoria, which is two floors. A ground cafe and a restaurant above, which is going to be finished French. The chef is Helene, who’ve I’ve kept in touch with many years. She opened up Skyline.
It’s this network of people. I can’t do it on my own. I can enthuse people and bring them along and create the passion but I need those great people and it’s about … You asked me earlier about what makes me able to do my job really, and that’s about sensitivity and to get on, I think, unless you’re an entrepreneur in IT, which is probably not people centric, if you’re in the business I’m in, you have to be good with people and sensitive to people.
David Citron:
Right…I was interviewing a friend of mine, he’s runs an entrepreneurial YouTube channel with about half-million subscribers all tuning in to get excited and enthused by what he brings. The way he’s attracted a lot of people is through one word, ‘Believe’. I’m wondering is there like a word behind your organization, behind D&D, behind you, which you put out? Is there a message that you put out which is attracting a certain kind of person – for example for me, my word is ‘Empower’.
David Citron:
One or two words, it’s sounds quite corporate identity and maybe Shell Oil do that sort of thing, but we’re still … The difference between us is that we’re a collection of individual businesses and I stress that in a way that we’re not a chain of restaurants. We’re a collection of individual businesses with great entrepreneurs working in each business. Great chefs and a great manager next to them, who will together, as a marriage, grow the business inspired by us – that’s the DNA of the business.
David Loewi:
It’s about passion and it’s about empowerment. You’re right in a way that this only works if you can find the right people, delegate to them, and empower them. That’s why I’m still in the business because there’s only so much you can do on your own and there’s so much you can create. We give them the structure and the infrastructure to succeed but you need the person then to take that with your support but naturally stand on their own two feet and succeed.
One of our best managers is Michel Besmond who opened Alcazar many years ago in Paris in Saint-Germain – Famous Paris restaurant.
His experience was he’d sailed around the world single-handed on a yacht and he’d run a women’s clothes-wear shop. However, he’d never been in the restaurant business…. but his enthusiasm, attention for detail, passion, drive, all those things, tic, tic, tic, and he’s been a great manager. Always on the floor. You walk into that restaurant, there he is. That’s what we’re looking for.
David Loewi:
It sounds like you hire the person over the skills, when they first come in there.
Yes. We can support them, we can give them more the infrastructure but it’s about that passion and that drive. That’s what you need. It’s not 9 to 5, Monday to Friday job, it’s a way of life.
David Citron:
I can understand, now, how you can attract people because you’re doing so much and you’ve made such an impact, people want to be a part of it, like the way people want to work for Apple, or Google, or something like that… However, when you were beginning, how did you attract the right people?
David Loewi:
Well, when I joined Sir Terence Conran and Des Gunewardena, the three of us really, and it was a much smaller company… in those days, Conran restaurants was out there, taking old buildings and breathing life into them. We’ve still kept that DNA and that excitement. Bluebird on the Kings Road was an empty, beautiful building but it was a charity. It was used for charity sales. We put life back into that building. The German gymnasium, in Victorian times it was the headquarters for the German Olympic team training and you can still see the hooks up there in the ceiling. It’s finding amazing buildings and breathing life back into them… That was the DNA of what Sir Terence did and that’s what we still do. To take incredible spaces and put life back into them.
So…However small or big you are, if that’s part of your DNA, it’s exciting. That’s going to attract people. It’s not just about attracting people for the new businesses, it’s also, you know Le Pont de la Tour has been with us for many, many years but it’s to make sure it’s got a beautiful location – It’s on the Thames – making sure that you’ve got a great chef there or a great manager, who we have. You give them the scope to make a name for themselves and allow them to come to life. That’s part of the DNA of the success of our company.
David Citron:
I’m just wondering if you ever get up and feel rough and not like going to work?
David Loewi:
No, I mean I think there’s never been … On the day that you wake up and think and I haven’t got the excitement to get to work, that’s the day you should go and do something else. I’ve never had that. I love what I do and there’s not enough days in the year to do it.
David Citron:
Does it feel like work to you?
David Loewi:
No, no. It’s a wonderful way of life. I’ve just, before coming to you, I was sitting with our events department… we brought someone in to create outside events in people’s houses, or in their companies. I was just talking to her about how we could be better next year? We need a new chef for it. It’s exciting. It’s always exciting, it’s setting people up and supporting them.
David Citron:
Right. There are a lot of times people think, how can I get into a business? A lot of people have a business approach of how can I get into a business, build it up, and exit it after five years or that sort of an idea. Do you think that there’s something wrong with that?
David Loewi:
It depends. If people are doing it purely for financial reasons to make a lot of money… There are easier ways of making money. You can work in banks and go into stock markets. When you work with over 2,000 staff, when you work with staff, and managers, and people, it’s often a lot more complicated. What makes me get up in the morning is not money, it’s about creating another fantastic business…
We’re doing a Japanese restaurant in Leeds, like let’s support the chef, let’s look at the detail, let’s look at the menus. Then during the opening period, nerves… It’s like putting on a show, every new restaurant is like putting on a West End performance in the theatre. It’s the first night and all the actors; the waiters, and the staff, and the chefs are there training and performing. Then the performances is on. That’s an adrenaline kick.
David Citroni:
A lot of excitement.
David Loewi:
That’s right.
David Citron:
You’re building up and you’re constantly in the world of creation and value giving….. We’ve got a question from the community, which is based on your early business experiences … this is a fantastic question. What advice would you give to today’s start out, young entrepreneur to elicit support from the business and financial community?
David Citron:
What we’ve done in D&D is to support a fantastic chef and work with them to make their dream come true, really. If they aspire to create an amazing restaurant, we would support them. But really in order for us to support them, they would have to have a real vision of what they want to do. They’d want to have, not always, but… experience, enthusiasm and dedication. All those things really … It’s a passion so that’s what I would look for in a person to back and support. If there’s a person, a young chef who thinks I really want to get this restaurant going, or get the finances, we can support people to do that. They’ve got to come to the table with those qualities.
David Loewi:
What would you say are your biggest strengths and what you focus on that moves things forward?
David Citron:
I think my biggest strength is seeing real talent in people and bringing it out and helping them succeed. As I’ve said, I can’t do this on my own. I do it with a fantastic team of people. This hotel is here with a Michelin star on the roof because we’ve got fantastic chef, we’ve got a wonderful manager, we’ve got great infrastructure. Now I can attract them but we got to deliver for them and they’ve got to deliver for us. It’s a relationship.
David Loewi:
Do you ever have or do you ever remember a time where you had the little man in your head, saying oh you can’t do this or you can’t do this for this person, oh we’re getting too big for our boots. Anything like that and what do you do with that voice if you have it?
David Citron:
Yeah, look… if you put a performance on you’re always nervous it’s going to be a hit. You have doubts but then all you can do is make sure that you’ve got the best people and you’ve got the best, beautiful equipment. You’ve designed your restaurant intelligently. You put all the right checks all the way through to make sure that it is going to be a success.
David Loewi:
18-year-old you, 18-year-old David Loewi comes into the room and you get five minutes to give him a pep talk. What would you say to him in that time about life, about business?
That’s a difficult one.
David Citron:
And would he listen to you? (chuckle) Assuming he listens.
David Loewi:
(Chuckle) No, I had mentors that I went to and I enjoyed talking to people and listening. Whether it was my grandmother, my grandfather, my father, I mean it’s like having … I’ve always enjoyed spending time with people and listening. Listening is a skill and however much confidence or lack of self-confidence you’ve got, I think people need mentors … I admired people. I respected people, listened to people and I certainly as an 18-year-old listened to people.
I was very impatient. I wanted to get on and really strive. The advice I would give is… ‘look, get your experience and specialize in what you want to do and be the best at it. And be honest.’
David Citron:
Yeah, I think it was it Steve Martin who said, “Be so good that they can’t ignore you.” You want to be that good in whatever you’re doing.
A lot of times people try to get inspiration from looking up to a great entrepreneur, Richard Branson, whoever. Some of the times I see entrepreneurs getting caught in a comparison trap where they lose themselves to that. What would you advise those people?
David Loewi:
I can only speak for myself. I’m not a jealous person. I mean I’m just very happy with my lot. I’ve always been like that so I’ve really, really enjoyed being a receptionist in Claridge’s and welcoming people to the hotel. I really didn’t want to move on (chuckle) but then with every job, it’s about the enthusiasm of doing that job really, really well. You know that jealousy of the general manager, yeah I looked at the general manager of the hotel and thought I’d like that job one day but then when I actually got there, I thought well, I’d like to be something else.
David Citron:
I think it’s great to aspire to success but not to be jealous. Just do what you are doing really, really well in life and bring the best out of it and enjoy it. It’s that passion of enjoying what you’re doing whether it’s making an Apple strudel or creating a business…. give it your best.
David Loewi:
I love that idea of being present with whatever you’re doing. Wherever you are just be there completely and enjoy it where you are. It doesn’t mean you are not striving. In fact, you’re striving the most by being present and grateful for what you have. You do seem incredibly content with where you are.
David Citron:
I’ve always loved it. I’ve loved working in Switzerland in the kitchens and then going skiing in between. Life, life is such a gift. Every day that we can see the sky and enjoy life. Probably something to do with my father being a manic-depressive that I’m just completely the opposite and just love life. What a gift it is today to be here today, talking to you.
David Loewi:
Wow, I’m on level seven. Did that have a big impact on you, the big difference between your father and yourself?
David Citron:
I think so. I think my father was a real intellectual. His aspirations were… an uncle of mine who got the Nobel Prize for nerve-endings. He (my father) was in the medical profession and he was never good enough in his own thoughts. He was a leading scientist but not good enough. I was probably the opposite, I didn’t go to university. I just went to hotel school and enjoyed it but I had that passion for life. At the end of the day I think that’s more of a gift than getting the best degree in Cambridge.
David Citron:
Love it.
David Loewi:
I think being brought up by one of the brightest people in the country and a leading scientist, aspiring to get a Nobel Prize, that made … not a chip on your shoulder but you actually thought I want to be successful too. I’m not as intellectual as him and actually having a father like that who’s so bright can actually put a downer on you because nothing is good enough. Therefore, he died when I was 17, and it made me probably more ambitious to succeed. To show my father, who’s no longer here, that actually I can be successful. I don’t know… that could be one of the reasons why I strive for success.
David Citron
There’s a few different drives.
David Loewi:
It’s sound psychologically. It sounds to me like it’s a darn good thing that you’re striving on that proving thing with something you’re passionate about. If you weren’t, that could be a recipe for disaster.
David Citron:
That’s right. A lot of people said to me, your father would’ve been so proud. I suppose that does give me pleasure.
Fantastic. Yeah, it’s something that strikes me, something actually Tony Robbins said.. a lot of people come from a great upbringing, they end up in and out of rehab. Some people come from a tough upbringing and they end up as Oprah Winfrey or whatever…doing something that which really impacts the world and makes a change and gives a lot of value to people. It strikes me that whatever happens to you, if you take an angle which will propel you forward, you see it in a positive, which you done – you’ve clearly followed your passion.. then you can take yourself, your life to the next level, whilst not getting caught up in that want to be over there now. Rather, I’m happy here.
David Loewi:
That’s right. Yeah, absolutely. Happy with my lot. Look, drive is very important. That you’re going to make the company bigger but what gives me pleasure is employing more people, creating more opportunities. There are always challenges along the way but let’s override them. Let’s get over them and let’s create more. That’s the enjoyment of creating great business.
David Citron:
Do you create boundaries between that part of you which is appreciating where you are and the part that’s about driving forward? Like, is there a time for meditation, and country walks and then there’s the time for push, push, push. Or is it all mixed in together in some fantastic way?
David Loewi:
There’s certainly time for country walks, and enjoying nature, and freedom, and the environment … I think it’s about focus. If I go for a walk in the countryside, I’m looking at the birds and the bluebells coming up. It’s just amazing. Then if I’m in a restaurant, I’ll be just concentrating really on that. It’s about passion really and enthusiasm for what you’re doing.
I think it’s also, I remember a chef said to me, John Torode from MasterChef, actually said to me … because we opened Mezzo together all those years ago. He said ‘you’re going to be really successful doing what you’re doing,’ because I was then being promoted to doing more within the company working with Terence and Des, because I, ‘can juggle a lot of balls at the same time.’ You know there’s specialists and if I was to look at my profile, I can actually do 25 things at the same time.
David Citron:
Is that because you can focus on one thing at a time? That allows you to do 25? I mean the human mind can’t take 25 things at once in its head to focus on. You can only literally focus on one thing, but if you’re splitting … A lot people get tired out moving from one thing, to another thing, to another thing, and when they’re doing one thing, they’re worrying about the other thing…
David Loewi:
No, no, you have to really concentrate on that one thing but then do it really well. We’re now looking at the company because we are growing and therefore I’m going to put more infrastructure in, which will help me then really focus on what I enjoy doing, which is about people, and staff, and the quality. Looking at the food, and the detail, and the menus – That’s the DNA of the business.
David Citron:
By the way, I just have to say to our listeners, our viewers, that I feel right now that I know David’s got a billion things to do, and I don’t want to remind him of that because then he’ll go and do those billion things… I feel like I’m literally the only person in this world right now. He’s completely focused, with me, present. There’s no looking at the watch. I remember seeing Bill Clinton versus and Bush Senior, and Bush, you know it was when the old Bush lost the election to Clinton. You can see when they’re both having questions asked of them by the audience, Bush is looking at his watch, thinking ‘oh I’m supposed to be somewhere’. He’s not present with the audience. Bill Clinton’s completely there. That’s what I’m experiencing from you. You’re just completely there and present. I appreciate that. I’m sure that’s how your staff feel. They pick up on that.
David Loewi:
Yeah, if I’m talking to … I remember Princess Diana did that and it made a big impression on me. We were doing a party for her and she came up to the most junior, she said hello to me and was very polite because I was running the event, but she went over to the buffet spoke to this young waiter who was a first time apprentice serving food and said,
‘So, now where are you from and how do you get to work?’ Really, she wasn’t him to impress me, she was talking to him because she was interested in him. That is a skill. Imagine him, he would have been for the rest of his life, saying wow, she really talked to me. I think it’s important if you’re going to talk to a member of staff, or anyone really, nothing to do with business, you need to be concentrating on that person.
David Citron:
How do you develop a premium brand? Was your brand premium purely because of the value that you give, or is there something in the marketing that gives over a premium that embellishes that?
David Loewi:
I mean look, this happens to be a five-star hotel but I have huge respect for a three-star and a four-star property. A three-star hotel can still be absolute perfection. It’s going to have wonderful sheets, and be absolutely clean but it’s got a different cost structure which allows a three-star hotel to be incredibly successful. It’s about again striving. If you’re creating a business, whatever market it’s in, make sure that it’s absolutely the best. It’s that attention to detail.
David Citron:
I remember working with, again you asked about entrepreneurs and people that have really inspired me – Sir Terence Conran has really inspired me. The first time I was with him, he took a piece of paper and he started drawing, just with his pencil on the back of a book, a wine cooler. It was a beautiful wine cooler – sort of cylindrical with beautiful stands. Then he said, “Look, here’s the wine cooler for the restaurant I’m going to create.” It’s that attention to detail. He wasn’t just interested in what the food was going to be and the lighting, he was interested in every single detail.
David Loewi:
Did you enjoy MasterChef?
David Citron:
I enjoyed MasterChef. I think my family thought I was incredibly cruel but they haven’t seen nothing yet. I just done another series of MasterChef, where it was in Fishermans Hall. There was a lunch again and we were served food by the contestants and I was honest (chuckle).
David Citron:
Masterchef is a great show but it’s not about really the food that goes on the plate – it’s about great ratings. However, what all these television shows about restaurants and food do is that they attract young people to the business, which is fantastic. All these Saturday Kitchens and all these programs, it’s fantastic. MasterChef is a really good program, it’s attracted (young people)… Great British Bake Off is another one.
They’re great fun and actually it shows that the housewife, or the person in the street, anyone, anyone can go into these shows … if they got passion and drive can win MasterChef. Good, that’s fantastic….
Have they got the right skill set to come into the restaurant business? Maybe but it’s about so many other things. About leadership and bringing a team with you. To be a head chef, you need a lot of attributes… to be able to cook, and to be able to cook on scale. It’s a different skill set but it’s not going to rule one out.
David Citron
Right. I think people like watching these shows because they love seeing someone who is passionate about what they do, which is so rare on the street.
David Loewi:
That’s right.
David Citron:
To see someone who is passionate about what they’re doing and they could be doing anything. You know that moment when you see someone, they can be sweeping the road, driving a bus, if they’re excited about their life, there’s something that draws you to them.
Can you give me an example of where there was a fail…. There was five minutes left before someone big arrived or something big was happening. Is there an example of that where you had to step in and make a change?
David Loewi:
There’s always loads of examples of things in this business that can go wrong. We were doing a huge banquet for the Royal Family in Claridge’s and one of the footmen had got the cars all mixed up and sent all the outfits for all the footmen to Heathrow airport. The Royal Family were going to come in an hour and they … You have to think on your feet. That’s not a failure but..
David Citron:
What did you do?
That was before mobile phones, so we had to telephone Heathrow to get the cars to try and come back as soon as they arrived. You’re in this business, things are going to go wrong, every day is a challenge. Whether it’s something that’s happened to the gas in a restaurant and the gas board don’t fix it, or escalating issues. Every day in this business there is something that you need to pull back to make sure that the show goes on.
How do you survive in the first three years of putting your business together?
A lot of people struggle with things like cash flow and all sorts of different things to keep an eye on. What would your number one tip be to an entrepreneur; he’s just starting out, he’s six months in, he’s doing the grind, he’s not seeing the results yet. How do you survive in terms of cash flow and keeping things going?
David Loewi:
Well, there’s so many different levers to pull. Is it the product? If something isn’t quite working, is it the product? Is it the pricing? A lot of these things you should have done in your homework before you actually open. There’s always tweaking but if there’s a complete re-jigging then you’ve actually made rather a lot of mistakes on the way.
I’m pleased to say that we’ve got enough experience in our business that we will open successfully. Whatever is thrown at us, we will try to get the best people to work with us and turn things around. To keep on the road, yeah, if (you have) that passion for attention to detail, looking after the customer, great feedback, great quality product, and adapting… thinking on your feet, you will be successful. The rest falls into line.
David Citron:
You mentioned about Research and Development and getting things right… Doing your research before. Can we pull the curtain back on D&D’s R&D? How do you do your research? Do you do focus groups? How do you know that a restaurant is going to work in a certain area? Or a particular food? Do you test the foods?
David Loewi:
We don’t use focus groups or anything like that.
David Citron:
What do you do?
David Loewi:
It’s very corporate and actually the best focus group is your instinct and your experience. Before I actually was working with Sir Terence Conran, they opened Le Pont de la Tour out of all the restaurants along the wharf. Everyone said look you’re completely crazy because the city is across the river. How can you survive out here? All the focus groups would have said, “Forget it.”
If we’re going to create something that make it an absolute magnet for all the people coming across, all those city guys coming across the river and having a fantastic lunch with fantastic wines, great food, and great outdoor seating along the river. Sure enough, it’s this great success. We don’t do a lot of research and development. We know London and we’ll know what properties are on the market and how to get good businesses together.
David Loewi:
I think it’s important also to know the competition. There’s a lot more competition than when we started this business. There’s some very, very good people out there. It’s about seeing what other people are doing. It’s not about copying, it’s about leading and that’s really what Conran restaurants was, and now D&D is. It’s about trying to be leaders. Whether it’s design, interior design, architecture, all those things come into the package of being a great restaurant.
David Citron:
Right. What about the huge push, especially in the tech world of the lean start-up. Starting with a minimal viable product, putting it out and seeing whether it actually gets any sales or they’re actually customers interested. Is that connected with your business in any way?
Or that’s a very different business e.g. It’s more for tech because in tech you can put it out there without too much investment. You get a lot of feedback quickly.
David Loewi:
Well, you can do pop-ups. There’s some guys that I worked with and actually I spotted… great talent, and they’re doing hamburgers and a bun. They have been doing on street markets and just testing it. Now they want to go into restaurants. Yes, you can test it, but it’s not really like a tech where you’re talking about a young chef wanting to get finance together. It’s an expensive business to put a restaurant together. Certainly to put a hotel up. You have to really know what you’re doing.
David Citron:
You’re starting from scratch, God forbid you lose everything. You lose your contacts, you lose your financials, everything. All you have is the mind that you have right now. How would you start again? Would you start again? What would you do? It’s day one, you’ve got your passion. What would you do? Would you do those pop-ups or what would you do? How would you move forward?
David Loewi:
How would I start all over again? I’d do exactly as I did, probably. Lots of great people have gone, you know, organizations have gone bust and started up again. That shows real stamina. I’d start, without any contacts at all, yeah you just walk around, get to know what’s going on and then have that passion to succeed again. Start from the embers and grow again. Look, you know when I did leave the organization of Conran and I went and opened The Wolseley with Jeremy and Christopher. It was just taking a building and completely on our own, starting a new business. That was very, very exciting. Yeah, we had some resources to do it but it was starting from the ground.
David Citron:
You know what strikes me about you is that on the one hand there’s an attention to detail but it always seems that if the guy is afraid to look bad, who’s going to get beaten, and because you have the attention to detail, you may have fallen into that but because you’ve got the passion and you just love what you do, you’re going to do it anyway. You’re going to keep turning up.
David Loewi:
Yes.
David Citron:
90% of success is turning up, you know just keep turning up and be there and trying and pushing forward with that. You don’t seem …. when I said ‘failure’, it didn’t seem to strike you as something..
David Loewi:
It’s not a terrible thing, failure.
David Citron:
You didn’t flinch, you weren’t like, ugh, gosh that would be a terrible thing or whatever, it’s …
David Loewi:
I failed my driving test, just take it again. I’m not saying it didn’t upset me but it is just like, so try harder.
David Citron:
What’s your philosophy on competition, like if there’s loads of competition, how do you find a gap in the market? You know if there’s a lot of competition in that area?
David Loewi:
If you take pizzas, I mean there’s loads and loads of pizza restaurants but actually now people are looking at that hole in the wall where these little guys from Italy are striving to open the best pizzas. They’re actually doing damage to the big chains because they’re actually better. Where would you and I rather go… is to that small entrepreneur. That’s been the DNA of our business, really, that small can be beautiful. We’re not a great big organization, we’ve got loads of separate businesses.
Gap in the market, yeah, so therefore you can do it better even if it exists. I mean, look, there are always new things coming onto the market and whether it’s Uber, or whether it’s UberEATS, or whether it’s How Clever or OpenTable, or these booking channels. It depends what you’re looking to do. In the restaurant business, you can do it better or there are always young entrepreneurial, or young dynamic chefs coming along with new ideas and they’re different fads. At the end of the day, that’s fantastic. People still want to go out and eat. It’s about quality as we talked about before. Whatever is out there, you can do better.
‘Whatever is out there, you can do better.’
David Citron:
David, thank you so much. You’ve really helped me. you’ve inspired me and I’m sure you’ve inspired people out there with this interview. Thank you so much for your time – I know it’s incredibly valuable and I really appreciate it.
David Loewi:
Yeah it’s an absolute pleasure. I wish every success to all the entrepreneurs out there who are striving, just go for it.
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