Successful Teams

I have always had the pleasure of being able to work for numerous amounts of teams over the years. The teams that have been the most successful would be the many restaurants that I have worked for over the years.

When it comes to a fast-paced restaurant, everyone has to be on their A game or the entire operation falls apart. Everyone has to be in sync, knowing exactly what the next move of every other team member is going to be.  I see this a lot at one restaurant in particular, the restaurant that I work at now, a stir fry restaurant in downtown business district of Champaign called 301 Mongolia.

The structure is built up like any other restaurant.  At the top is the owner, Amit, he runs and oversees everything that is going on in both 301 Mongolia and the restaurant that he also owns next door called Dublin's, a five star Irish Pub.  Under him are the front of house managers, as their title states, they oversee the front of the restaurant, making sure that the servers have everything they need in order for the restaurant to run smoothly.  Under them are back of house managers that take care of the kitchen and help with anything that the cooks might need.

Then come the servers, even though we make the most money, we do not have as much power as the managers and honestly, I like it that way because it gives us more time to focus on doing our jobs right because we do not have time to make sure that the rest if the restaurant is running smoothly like the managers do.  I say we make more money because we make tips every night after our shift that only get taxed 10% (cash tips are not taxed, only credit card tips).  The managers on the other hand make a salary that does not match the amount of money we make.  That is not really important but I thought it was relevant to share simply because servers usually do not make the most when it comes to a restaurant, besides the owner of course.

This system works because less money is coming out of the owner's pocket when it comes to paying us, most of our money, like I said before, come from tips from the customers.  This works well because if a server is not performing to the best of their ability, it is reflected on how much they are making in tips.  This provides incentive for the servers to do the best they can possibly do by providing excellent service while also up-selling customers on drinks, appetizers, and desserts because the higher the bill, the higher our tip, and the more money the restaurant and the server makes.

With the combination of the servers, hosts, cooks, and managers, the restaurant always runs smoothly because it is never understaffed.  I have worked at other restaurants in the past that have half the amount of servers that they should have and as a result, that team becomes stressed, resulting in a lower quality product (meaning the food, drink, and customer service).  When this happens, as you might've guessed, sales are lower and the recurrence of regular customers drops due to a bad experience.

When it comes to working as a team, the servers at this restaurant all know exactly what is going on with the other.  This is great because if one server starts to get overwhelmed, the others can help them (ie. bus their tables, run their food, etc.) until the server that is behind catches up.  The reason we are all so good at reading each other is because we know each other personally.  When there is down time, we talk to each other and get to know exactly how each other operates.  So when we do see that one of us is showing signs of distress, we know exactly how and what to do in order to help them in the best way possible.  And when we bring that team member up, we all benefit from the easy flow of the restaurant.

Example of Unethical Opportunistic Behavior

I worked Riot Fest last weekend.  Riot Fest is a multi-day music festival that features music genres including rock, punk, alternative rock and hip hop. It first started in Chicago, Il in 2005 and has now expanded to Denver and Toronto.  

My job was to take care of all of the cash for the beer tent that me and my friend Gus, were assigned to.  There were around 15-20 bartenders taking the drink orders and money but all of the money (besides tips) had to end up in our teller boxes.  This job was one of the most fast-paced jobs I had ever worked, and having thousands of dollars in my teller box also added to the stress of not wanting to mess up.  After the first day, I learned the ropes and began to create a system that worked. 

The second day, a nice kid named Juan joined our tent because it was getting to be too much for only two tellers (my friend Gus and I).  He was a nice kid but there was just something off about him. After a long day's work, the chaos finally died down and we went to count up our money.  We had to match the amount of beer we sold to the amount of money that was in our tills.  Gus and I both came out even but Juan came out $63 over.  We felt bad because it was his first day so we helped him count his money just to double check.  It ended up still being $63 over.  

When the runner (man who collects the money) came around to collect our tills, he wrote down exactly how much money that was in our tills and compared it to the number beers that were sold.  When he went around to Juan, I heard the runner say "Perfect, right on the money."  I was confused, I thought that he had been over.  Not really caring and having other things to do before I left, I ignored it and went on with my closing duties. 

Later on, Gus and I left and started to make our way back to the car.  On our walk, Juan caught up to us and began to converse about the day of work.  After awhile of talking and getting to know us a little better, Juan then asks us if we want to see something.  As you might've guessed, he pulled the $63 out of his pocket and went on to criticizing the system of Riot Fest and how easy it is to give the wrong change and come out with some extra cash.  Gus and I both looked at each other with the same look on our face, the look of distrust for this person who we barely even know.  

I don't know why, but that really bugged me.  We were trusted by the company that hired us to take care of our tills and make sure that even if we were over or under, to be trusting and write exactly how much our drawer was off by and because of our honesty, we would not suffer any consequences. We were already getting paid $600 for two days of working, which I thought was a really good gig.  But it was not about the money, it was more about that this one person was going against the system when someone else who was actually trusting could've done the job right.  This job is a really good gig, which makes it really hard to get, so the fact that Juan took advantage of the company by taking the $63 extra dollars really did not sit well with me.   

Let me know what you guys think?  Would you take the money and risk losing your job making $600 just for a measly $63?  I personally think it is not worth it, but maybe some people, like Juan, think that it's worth the risk and internal guilt. 

Organization Experience/Transaction Costs 

The organization that comes to mind is one of my old workplaces.  I used to work for a company called CA Ventures, a company specializing in the leasing/building of luxury student housing all across the Untied States on various college campuses, including the University of Illinois.

Their headquarters are located in Chicago Il, but you may recognize them for their properties in Champaign.

West Quad Apartments, one of their properties that was just built last year located in campustown of UIUC. These luxury-style apartments include a swimming pool, jumbrotron, full gym, sauna, tanning bed, etc.





HERE, another one of their many properties, located near the UIUC campus off of fourth and Green. Boasts a rooftop terrace with hot tub, gym, sauna, golf simulator, electronic self-park parking garage, etc.



I picked this organization because it was the first company I worked for with a structured hierarchy of employees.  At the bottom sat the Leasing Agents and Brand Ambassadors (I was a leasing agent).  Next on the totem pole were the Leasing Professionals (pretty much just full time Leasing Agents). Above them was the Leasing Manager, and above he/she was the Property Manager.  All these people were crammed into one office, having different jobs while also knowing where they stood in the lineup. This created some interesting relationships among the employees, mainly because we were all so different in age and power (when it came to the company).

After some time, I left CA Ventures and moved onto another company.  In the time I was gone, being from the end of the 2015 school year and coming back this fall, an entirely new staff had been implemented.  When the buildings were finally finished, I stepped into one of their offices (HERE's) to say hi to some old employees but much to my surprise, none of them remained.  Aside from that, the building was in utter chaos.  The walls were not finished, the elevators still had plastic wrap on them from the factory, the hot tub was not running yet, the automatic parking garage was far from automatic, meaning not working, the list goes on and on.  Along with the unfinished building that looked nothing like the 3D renderings we had see oh so many times at work, the employees had absolutely no idea what they were doing.

It may have been that the new staff were still getting their bearings in a new workplace, but it just seemed like the entire building and staff in it were shaky and unprofessional, nothing like what the residents had been promised.  You would think that a company with such a high success rate of opening properties at other colleges would know exactly how to open up a new property on this one.  But then I thought, maybe it was the structure of this branch of the company that failed.  Everyone was constantly in each other's space and needing to meet nearly impossible deadlines, and when push came to shove (meaning the opening of this new building)  they cracked under the pressure.

Aside from that, some transactions costs included commission.  Each and every employee, no matter what title, got commission if they sold someone on a property, specifically 25% of one month's rent.  Shockingly (sarcasm), they have gotten rid of this incentive, yet another example of how this company is drastically restructuring the way it is run.

Kenneth Arrow was born in New York City, New York on August 23^rd, 1921. He attended City College of New York for his undergrad, Colombia University for graduate (while doing research at the University of Chicago), and earned his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1951.  He is currently a Joan Kenny Professor of Economics and Professor of Operations Research, Emeritus at Stanford University.  

He won a Nobel Prize in Economics with John Hicks making him the youngest person to receive this award.  Aside from that, he came up with multiple theorems, one of which was Arrow's impossibility theorem which stated that "If we exclude the possibility of interpersonal comparisons of utility, then the only methods of passing from individual tastes to social preferences which will be satisfactory and which will be defined for a wide range of sets of individual orderings are either imposed or dictatorial."

Prior to taking this class, I had not heard of Kenneth Arrow and his many contributions in Economics. 

I do not think we have touched on this topic in class.  We touched on this idea of voters leaning towards X or Y in my BADM 310 class, Management and Organizational Behavior.  We discussed this idea of a group of voters leaning towards either the “x” side or “y” side.  As Kenneth Arrow states in his theorem, if the voter prefers x over y, then the group prefers x over y.  Say the voter has no preference between the two groups, then the group’s preference between the two also remains unchanged.   

Other theories include the General Equilibrium Theory, Fundamental theorems of welfare economics,    Endogenous-growth theory and had many advancements in Informational Economics.  General Equilibrium Theory is the study of a number of economic variables, their interrelations and interdependences for understanding the working of the economic system as a whole.  This is relative to Econ 490 because this is the basis for Economics as a whole.  

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