Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

by Danny Meyer

Within moments of being born, most babies find themselves receiving the first four gifts of life: eye contact, a smile, a hug, and some food. We receive many other gifts in a lifetime, but few can ever surpass those first four.

Business, like life, is all about how you make people feel. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard.

Hospitality is the foundation of my business philosophy. Virtually nothing else is as important as how one is made to feel in any business transaction. Hospitality exists when you believe the other person is on your side. The converse is just as true. Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions—for and to—express it all.

My father was unquestionably my childhood hero: a hedonist, a gastronome, and a man who cherished and passionately savored life.

my greatest joy comes not from going it alone, but from leading an ensemble. Hospitality is a team sport.

Understanding the distinction between service and hospitality has been at the foundation of our success. Service is the technical delivery of a product. Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes its recipient feel. Service is a monologue—we decide how we want to do things and set our own standards for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a dialogue. To be on a guest’s side requires listening to that person with every sense, and following up with a thoughtful, gracious, appropriate response. It takes both great service and great hospitality to rise to the top.

The only way a company can grow, stay true to its soul, and remain consistently successful is to attract, hire, and keep great people.

good as the best things they’ll say, and never as bad as the negative ones. Just keep centered, know what you stand for, strive for new goals, and always be decent.”