How to create an excellent organizational culture - Thoughts after reading "Din Tai Fung's Autobiography - Perfection with Warmth"

Liang Shuming said in "Eastern and Western Culture and Its Philosophy" that culture is the style of life of a nation. Corporate culture, that is, the way people work and live in a company, exists in the words and deeds of the founder of the company, and also in the unique temperament and empathy of the employees. 3M's innovative culture, P&G's customer-first culture, Huawei's wolf culture, and Tencent's goodwill culture are the genes of enterprises and are also the genes deeply rooted in the minds and bodies of employees in these organizations. There is no good or bad corporate culture, but in order to cope with a specific environment and provide products and services with strong vitality, it is necessary to shape a corporate culture that adapts to the strategic requirements of the organization to drive employees up and down to maintain consistency and achieve the same goals. Goals and vision.

In this "Organizational Behavior" course, Teacher Ren recommended "Din Tai Fung's Autobiography: Perfection with Warmth". From this book, I saw how Din Tai Fung built a world-class catering brand from scratch. And the whole process of creating an excellent organizational culture of "warm perfection". Therefore, this article hopes to combine the theoretical framework of the organizational culture chapter in Stephen Robbins' "Organizational Behavior", take Din Tai Fung as a case, combine theory with practice, and sort out how to shape an excellent organizational culture.

Every organization has its own organizational culture, and depending on its strength, organizational culture can have a significant impact on the attitudes and behaviors of organizational members. "Organizational Behavior" states that organizational culture refers to a system of meanings shared by organizational members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. Organizational culture, to put it simply, is what characteristics members of the organization collectively believe the organization has. For example, Huawei's organizational culture is a spirit of struggle, while Tencent's organizational culture is freedom and tolerance. Next, we will systematically explain what kind of corporate culture Din Tai Fung has and how to shape this culture.

1. Din Tai Fung’s corporate culture

In the book "Warm Perfection", the protagonist Din Tai Fung is a world-renowned Taiwanese Xiao Long Bao specialty store. Founded in Taiwan in 1972, it has gone through a glorious journey from brand establishment to vigorous development over the past few decades, and has opened branches in Japan, the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuxi and other places. In 1993, Din Tai Fung Restaurant was selected as "one of the top ten gourmet restaurants in the world" by the New York Times, and won consecutive Michelin stars in Hong Kong. Many domestic and foreign tourists must visit Din Tai Fung when they come to Taiwan, just to experience the delicious food and service.

Din Tai Fung, like Haidilao, is known for its excellent service. This book is prefaced by Zhang Yong, chairman of Haidilao. Haidilao was established in 1994. During the growth of the company, Zhang Yong visited Europe and the United States to inspect the market and learn from large international catering companies, including Din Tai Fung.

The ultimate service needs to be provided by employees with the ultimate service spirit. In recent years, there have been countless studies on Haidilao's services. In fact, Din Tai Fung should have been the first to create the ultimate service in the Chinese catering industry. I think Din Tai Fung's culture explained in the book "Perfection with Warmth" is the two words "warmth and perfection". These two words create the ultimate service spirit of employees.

First of all, Din Tai Fung requires the production of dishes with the level of precision manufacturing. For example, the heating of chicken soup must be measured with a thermometer to confirm that it reaches 85°C; the sauce-vinegar dipping ratio is 1:3; Xiaolongbao ingredients are 5 grams, rolling dough diameter 6.5 cm, filling 16 grams, golden ratio 18 pleats, etc. In this way, Din Tai Fung ensures that the food provided in each region is of the same quality and of the same high quality, creating a world brand of "the world's best package". This is enough to show Din Tai Fung’s culture of pursuing perfection.

Secondly, Din Tai Fung treats its employees with warmth, and its salary and bonuses are much higher than the industry's high standards. The annual salary of the store manager is more than NT$2 million, and there is no upper limit for promotion space; the professionalism in cultivating talents also opens up their international career. In terms of vision, at Din Tai Fung, there are often opportunities to be sent to overseas branches for exchanges; Din Tai Fung takes care of the physical health of its employees and has established a Lohas division specifically for employees’ psychological counseling services. These measures are difficult to see in the traditional catering industry, and Din Tai Fung has pioneered such a precedent. If you treat employees with warmth, they will naturally be willing to devote themselves to their work and provide customers with meticulous and warm services with a smile.

Since there are not many Din Tai Fung stores in China, many people, including myself, were not very impressed with Din Tai Fung at first, but were impressed by Haidilao’s service. The prototype of Haidilao style service culture can be found in this book by Din Tai Fung. This kind of culture distinguishes Din Tai Fung and Haidilao from countless large and small catering stores, forming a unique reputation and brand. I believe that thousands of stores want to imitate and surpass this kind of culture, but why are there so few that actually do it?

2. How to create a "warm and perfect" organizational culture

The book "Organizational Behavior" points out that organizational culture does not arise out of thin air. The organization's current routines, traditions, and work practices The general approach depends largely on past practices and the success of those practices. This leads us to the source of organizational culture: the founders of the organization. Organizational founders have a huge influence on an organization's early culture. Without the constraints of previous habits and ideologies, they outline a vision for what the organization should do, and because new organizations are usually small, it is very conducive for founders to instill this vision in all organizational members.

There are three ways to form organizational culture. First, founders hire and retain only those people who think and feel the same way they do; second, they instill and socialize employees with their own way of thinking and feeling; and third, founders’ behavior will Employees are encouraged to identify with these beliefs, values ??and assumptions and further internalize them as their own thoughts and feelings. When an organization is successful, the founder's personality traits become ingrained in the organizational culture.

The most popular discussion recently about the influence of founders on corporate culture is probably Mr. Ren Zhengfei’s influence on Huawei. Huxiu’s article “Ren Zhengfei: Huawei’s Helmsman” clearly shows Mr. Ren’s influence on Huawei. Without Mr. Ren, Huawei would not be what it is today. Mr. Ren’s background as a soldier and his pursuit of career have created Huawei’s wolf culture. His thirst for knowledge has created a knowledge-intensive culture with high investment in R&D, and his enjoyment of results has created a culture that is hard to match in employee salary. This year, Mr. Ren, who has always been low-key, began to meet with the media frequently. Various reports emerged one after another. It can be seen that Huawei has gone through the two stages of wolf culture and the comprehensive introduction of advanced concepts from Western companies. It is currently entering the third stage, which is to use Become a globally integrated company with a compatible, inclusive culture.

The source of Din Tai Fung culture is founder Yang Jihua. Din Tai Fung’s perfect and warm culture was created by Yang Jihua. The following three points are sufficient

1. Founders only hire and retain those people who are consistent with their own ideas and feelings

The organization’s selection process has a clear goal: to identify and retain Hire people who have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the job successfully. Usually, there must be more than one job applicant who can meet the needs of a certain job. The decision-maker's judgment of a candidate's fit with the organization can significantly influence which candidate is ultimately hired.

Just as Huawei preferred to recruit children from rural areas to uphold the spirit of strivers, Din Tai Fung also has strict requirements for finding people. Din Tai Fung’s recruitment booth is always crowded, and the acceptance rate is about 5%. Yang Jihua requested that in the Din Tai Fung interview, in addition to interviewing personality traits, expertise, and experience, there will also be a bean picking test. Applicants are given a plate with several different beans mixed in, and the applicant is required to pick up beans within one minute. Try your best to sort out the different beans with your chopsticks. This test is to test the stability characteristics of the candidates. Many in the catering industry require repetitive and monotonous work for several hours, which requires employees to have the patience and perseverance to do this type of work well.

2. Instill and socialize employees with their own way of thinking and feeling

Yang Jihua himself is an out-and-out workaholic, working 365 days a year, My biggest hobby is visiting stores. The employees at Din Tai Fung are also very hard-working. Even the employees working outside will put a lot of effort into their work. He requires every dish to have an SOP and every operator to have a scientific spirit. Electronic scales, thermometers, salinity meters, and timers are the most common basic tools in the kitchen. Ultimately, they are all to ensure the consistency of the products. . In actual work, he pays great attention to these details.

(1) The ultimate pursuit of quality: When Yang Jihua took over Din Tai Fung, it was just a snack bar, but at that time Yang Jihua was adhering to the spirit of ultimate quality and making Xiaolongbao to be the most delicious. , the most meticulous.

To highlight the flavor of Xiao Long Bao, the seasoning and dipping sauce should also be particular, with the golden ratio of one to three soy sauce and vinegar. Now at Din Tai Fung, we adhere to precision cooking. Yang Jihua requires that every shrimp must be weighed by an electronic scale and classified according to important sizes into different products such as fried rice, luffa shrimp dumplings, siomai, shrimp dumplings, fried dumplings and wontons. , and finally, a dedicated person will check again and pick out defective products that have not been cleaned and whose appearance and size are obviously different from those in the same pot.

(2) The ultimate pursuit of service: The pursuit of product quality also extends to service. Yang Jihua once met a customer in a Kaohsiung store and reported to him that after wiping the table, the table was still wet. , so I started to review how to twist the rag so that it would be dry and wet properly. Then all branches are asked to upload their folded dishcloths and compete to see who can fold them the best. After that, Yang Jihua stipulated that the rag must be folded into a square shape like a military quilt, the four corners must be aligned, and the LOGO must not be exposed. Yang Jihua's ultimate requirements for quality and service are constantly conveyed to employees, thus creating such an ultimate culture.

3. The founder’s behavior will encourage employees to identify with these beliefs, values ??and assumptions, and further internalize them into their own thoughts and feelings

Many human resource management activities will further strengthen organizational culture. The organization's employee selection procedures, performance appraisal criteria, training and development activities, and promotion procedures can ensure that the organization hires employees who fit the culture, rewards employees who support and embrace the culture, and rewards those who question the organizational culture. Will be punished (even fired).

In a survey in Taiwan, it was found that the number one “good boss” most respected by netizens was Yang Jihua, the chairman of Din Tai Fung. He has always practiced: Only happy employees can have satisfied customers. In order to make employees happy at work and enhance their sense of happiness, Din Tai Fung under his leadership has taken many measures.

(1) Din Tai Fung’s salary and bonuses are much higher than the industry’s high standards

The starting salary of an outside waiter is NT$39,000 to NT$43,000 (NT$) if performance bonus and language bonus are included. , courtesy bonus, saving someone's life, bonus bonus, etc. The monthly salary easily exceeds NT$50,000 (NT$), and the store manager’s annual salary is more than NT$2 million (NT$). Taking 2013 as an example, including employee bonuses and dividends, labor costs accounted for 52%. ?

(2) Pay great attention to the promotion frequency and career development of employees

When companies emphasize flat organizations, Din Tai Fung instead creates more ranks and moves towards a hierarchical organization. The main purpose is to make the career development of employees clearly visible and provide opportunities for advancement, promotion and salary increase every year. Take the catering team as an example: Starting from the trainee, they are divided into commissioners, senior commissioners, deputy team leaders, team leaders, and then to deputy directors, directors, trainees and deputy managers, deputy managers and managers. The company holds promotion exams regularly, and salary increases are provided for every level promoted. Yang Jihua himself will personally check the promotion status of his subordinates. If an employee does not appear on the promotion list, he will even personally ask "why this employee has not been promoted yet."

(3) Caring for employees

The service industry is very physically demanding. The company insists that employees take a nap so that they can have the energy to provide good services in the afternoon. Each store has an employee lounge where you can lie down and take a nap, there is a leg massage machine, and masseurs will be hired to give massages to employees. On days when schools are on consecutive holidays, the conference room on the fourth floor will be opened, and employees can bring their children here to do homework. The store provides lunch and dinner, so employees don't have to worry about their children at home and can go to work with peace of mind.

3. Summary

The book "Perfection with Temperature" explains through rich and detailed cases that "temperature" symbolizes human nature and flexibility, and "perfection" symbolizes precision and advancement. . "Warm perfection" represents Din Tai Fung's products and services, as well as the spiritual and cultural heritage of Yang Jihua and every Din Tai Fung employee. In summary, Din Tai Fung's initial organizational culture originated from the business philosophy held by the organization's founder, Yang Jihua, and as the organization grew, this culture significantly affected the organization's selection criteria. The behavior of top managers represented by Yang Jihua determines the overall atmosphere of the organization, including which behaviors are acceptable and which behaviors are unacceptable. In every Din Tai Fung store around the world, an "authentic" seed team from the headquarters has gone to the local area to inherit and take root, copying and passing on the culture of Din Tai Fung headquarters, and shaping the legend of Din Tai Fung.

Founders have a huge influence on corporate culture, and every team leader is the shaper of this team culture. Every manager needs to think about what kind of common values ??they expect the team to have. , and practice this kind of values, encourage such values ??in talent selection, human resources management and other aspects, and create a culture that meets the team's development goals.