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Fresh or frozen? That was the million dollar query restaurateur Danny Meyer after burning New York Times review. An area rag infiltrated Meyer’s slowly growing Shake Shack empire – then about 30 restaurants – for serving frozen fries. Hurt by his pride, Meyer quickly switched to fresh fries without giving much thought to the alternative. If he did, he might have discovered that fresh fries had to be fried three times and that their flavor and quality were inconsistent. A yr later, the burger chain returned to selling frozen burgers.
Takeaway? Meyer should have listened to his gut. Despite the review, high-quality frozen fries have proven successful with customers. You know the saying: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Second, Meyer was able to dig deeper into the data and investigate the proposed business change. Perhaps he realized that it was not price switching to something fresh – that his intuition had been right all along. This is a great example of why leaders should listen to data AND their insides.
In recent years, there has been a major focus on data-driven decision-making. Author and Wharton professor Adam Grant said Washington Post Office: :
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