Austrian Efficiency

I want to describe the operations of a restaurant... I want you to tell me if the restaurant is located in Italy or Austria.

Picture a restaurant servicing a 60 seat area of a piazza... the temperature is 40°... it's lunchtime. Two men work the patrons with wi-fi systems that take orders and receive payments. These guys never walk into the restaurant... except to take orders from the customers who choose to sit inside. The order is printed off on one of two printers... one for drink orders and one for food orders. Two mature ladies do the order fulfilment... and place the deliveries on a tray that three young ladies take to the tables. They also clear the tables and stack the dishwasher. The restaurant also had a window onto the piazza that served ice cream to passing shoppers. Joye and I had a sandwich and a drink... delicious flavours... and spent 30 minutes on the premises. During that time, some 100 trays were served with 6 items on each tray. They would have a revenue of €2,000 in the 30 minutes ...a most profitable business. But the aspect that I found amazing was the productivity of the staff. They moved at speed for the full 30 minutes. Staff seemed to enjoy their work... totally engaged. They did not talk to each other... no need to seek clarification... and not an idle moment. This business had its systems... staff training... food quality controls... and customer service issues down to a tee.

Now tell me... was this business located in south Tyrol (Italy) or in north Tyrol (Austria)?

Both areas are located in the Dolomites... the same environment. Up until WWI, but regions were governed by Austria... so grew up with similar cultural values. You may know the history... Italy was given half of the Dolomites for choosing the winning side in WWI. While the rest of Europe... and other members of the British Empire were slogging it out in the sodden fields of Flanders, the Italians and the Austrians were having a ding-dong battle high up in the Dolomites. Some of the stories from this period... of dare-doing and self sacrifice seem to come straight from a 'Boys Own' manual. Anyway, the Italians got the spoils even though Tyrol people have little in common with Italians. Where we stayed at Ortisei is in west Tyrol... tonight, we are staying in Kaprun and it is east Tyrol... in Austria.

If you guessed the efficient restaurant was in Austria... you are correct. We saw lots of restaurants in Italy... but nothing approached the service levels and productivity levels of the Austrian restaurant... located at Lienz. A line on a map is supposed to have zero cultural impact... but something was driving the behaviour of the most efficient... most effective restaurant team I have seen.