Pret & Itsu Founder: How I Built TWO Billion Dollar Brands At The Same Time!: Julian Metcalfe
Julian Metcalfe, founder of Pret A Manger and Itsu, discusses building businesses on transparency, trust, and a deep passion for product and people. He shares insights on leadership, embracing failure, and how childhood experiences shaped his unique approach to entrepreneurship and culture.
Deep Dive Analysis
10 Topic Outline
Childhood Hardships and Their Lasting Impact
The Power of Transparency and Trust in Business
Personal Relationships and the Absence of Affection
Motivation and Specialness Behind Pret A Manger's Success
Hiring Philosophy and Employee Empowerment at Pret
The Importance of Detail and Customer Loyalty
Evolution and Reinvention of Itsu's Mission
Crisis Management and the Impact of Natasha's Law
Discovering a Daughter and Its Profound Impact
Reflections on Fear, Happiness, and Life's Priorities
4 Key Concepts
Transparency in Commerce
This refers to sharing information, truth, and honesty with colleagues, teammates, and employees, as well as with customers. It builds trust and is considered by Julian Metcalfe to be the most important characteristic for long-term success, despite being often absent in businesses.
Founder-Led Businesses
These are companies where the founder's unique perspective, often shaped by early life experiences like trauma or distrust of authority, drives innovation and distinct approaches to culture and decision-making. This can lead to breaking norms and creating new ways of doing things.
The Joy of Pret
A system at Pret A Manger that encouraged staff to give away free products to customers daily, such as coffee or croissants. The goal was to foster kindness, build long-term relationships, and exceed customer expectations, even if direct numerical proof of its financial benefit was not always available.
Natasha's Law
A law introduced in the UK, named after a young girl who died from an allergic reaction to a Pret A Manger baguette. This law mandates significantly more food labeling in the country to protect consumers with allergies.
10 Questions Answered
His mother's suicide when he was seven created a loneliness and added a complexity to his character, shaping his relationships with people and work, though he believes its direct impact waned over time.
Transparency fosters honesty and truth, builds trust among colleagues and with customers, and is considered by Julian Metcalfe to be the most important characteristic for long-term success, although many businesses lack it due to fear and insecurity.
Julian Metcalfe suggests that a significant percentage of people don't want to go to work because they operate in environments lacking transparency, where their emotions are inconvenient, and they are not nurtured or trusted.
He wanted to make a difference, be relevant and admired, do something interesting and great, see people flourish, wipe away some personal pain, and passionately engage in the creative process of food and design.
Its specialness came from endless moments of magic, creativity, confidence, swimming upstream against trends, hiring talent, listening, and a deep obsession with creating pride and trust with the team.
He realized that relying solely on managers could lead to abuse and a bad culture, so he created a system where the team voted to ensure new hires fit the culture of trust, care, and pride.
He had no choice, as the new private equity owners had no interest in working with him, and the business had become more focused on generating sales than on the original vision of customer and staff relationships.
It was a tragic event for the family and everyone at Pret, leading to the introduction of Natasha's Law, which mandates more food labeling in the UK.
He felt an overwhelming desire to support her and help her build her strength, finding the experience deeply enriching, and she is now close to his other children and works with him.
He is aware that his commitment to work and creative pursuits comes at the cost of not spending enough time nurturing, loving, and supporting the people he loves most.
14 Actionable Insights
1. Embrace Transparency in Business
Be open and honest with colleagues, teammates, and employees by sharing information and truth. This builds trust and is crucial for long-term success, as opposed to self-serving secrecy.
2. Prioritize Relationships Over Numbers
Focus on building strong relationships with customers, staff, and the product itself, as the numbers will naturally follow. Avoid getting overly fixated on short-term profits at the expense of long-term trust and loyalty.
3. Challenge Conventional Wisdom
Be willing to ‘swim upstream’ and go against the crowd when you believe something isn’t right, even if it takes guts and bravery. This approach can lead to innovative and successful outcomes.
4. Embrace Failure as a Journey
View failure as a natural and valuable part of the process, rather than something to fear. It is a continuous journey of learning and improvement that you should simply ‘get on with’.
5. Hire Talent Better Than Yourself
Have the courage to hire people who are more skilled and talented than you, and be prepared to listen to them until it hurts. This fosters growth and innovation within your team.
6. Empower Employees with Trust
Give employees significant responsibility and trust, such as allowing them to vote on new hires. This empowers them, builds pride, and fosters a positive and productive company culture.
7. Adopt a Long-Term View
Think with a very long-term perspective, such as a 30-year view, in business decisions rather than focusing on short-term gains. This helps avoid destructive, short-sighted actions often driven by overly ambitious individuals.
8. Nurture and Develop Your Team
Actively nurture and develop the confidence and strength of your team members, rather than putting them through a ‘meat grinder.’ People thrive when given opportunity and support, leading to better performance.
9. Be Resourceful and Determined
To create something new and offer the best product or service, be unbelievably resourceful and determined. This involves working with geniuses, having the best equipment, and creating what you need rather than just ordering it.
10. Act on Evidence, Not Just Hard Work
Understand that success isn’t just about hard work; it’s about making changes, getting better, and seeing real proof of improvement in your product, service, and relationships. Focus your effort effectively to achieve tangible results.
11. Give Generously to Customers
Encourage staff to give away products or services to customers, especially regulars or those who seem to need it. This builds long-term loyalty and goodwill, even if it’s hard to quantify immediately.
12. Respond to Customer Feedback Immediately
Prioritize answering customer inquiries and feedback promptly, ideally before the day ends. This demonstrates care and respect for your customers and builds strong relationships.
13. Dare to Take Risks
Encourage yourself and others to dare to take huge risks, especially when you feel something is right in your heart. You are capable of more than you think, so ‘just go for it’.
14. Accept Your Inadequacies
Acknowledge and accept your inadequacies rather than trying to hide them. Understanding them is the first step to thriving despite or even because of them.
8 Key Quotes
Transparency is everything. And so many people work in an environment where it's simply not there.
Julian Metcalfe
I love failure. I love it because it's just a damn journey. I really love it. I fail every day and I don't care about it. I just get on with it.
Julian Metcalfe
People don't trust them. People don't nurture them. Because they're too busy being selfish, nurturing them themselves.
Julian Metcalfe
As all the fish are going in one way, you suddenly look around and you think, damn it, I'm going to go the other way.
Julian Metcalfe
The numbers just look after themselves. They really, really, really do.
Julian Metcalfe
When you do good stuff, it always comes back. You get it back. You've got to think long term.
Julian Metcalfe
Very ambitious people are a pain in the ass. Often very ambitious people, often, not always, but often a very short term.
Julian Metcalfe
To create the way I do, to work the way I do, comes at a cost. And the cost is I don't spend enough time nurturing, loving, and being supportive to the people I love most.
Julian Metcalfe
2 Protocols
Pret A Manger Hiring Process (The 'Napkin Vote')
Julian Metcalfe- Interview candidates at the office.
- Send selected candidates to a Pret A Manger shop for a full paid day, where they interact with the team.
- At 4 PM, all staff at the shop vote 'yes' or 'no' on a napkin for the candidate, without the candidate's knowledge.
- The candidate is then contacted and informed of the hiring decision.
Pret A Manger 'Joy of Pret' Giveaway System
Julian Metcalfe- Encourage all employees to give away 5-10 products daily to any customer they choose (e.g., regulars, those with a 'long face', or someone they 'fancied').
- Register each giveaway on the till using a dedicated 'joy of Pret' button.
- Use the till data to identify stores that are not giving away enough products, indicating a manager might be running the business too 'tight'.