People in airports are travelling for a variety of reasons. The common denominator? They all have to eat. That’s where Stephen Baldi and Baldi Management Group (BMG) comes in. BMG is an airport concessions and management consulting company that manages restaurants in several Washington, D.C. airports.
Stephen joined us on a recent episode of Forktales to talk about the importance of hospitality and good customer service (especially in airports), the value of mentorship, how to hire good managers and how a pair of Air Jordans changed Stephen’s life.
HOW DO YOU HANDLE THE CHAOS OF OPERATING IN AIRPORTS?
“You meet people where they are. It may be the 50th time you’ve welcomed someone to our restaurant, but it’s the first time you’ve spoken to the person in front of you. You don’t know if they’re going on vacation or to a celebration of life. Regardless, you should be additive to their experience. That is our vision for the company – being exceptional is our standard.”
WHAT ROLE DOES MENTORSHIP AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAY IN YOUR COMPANY TODAY?
“If I bring in someone as a frontline worker that’s pouring coffee, and they’re still pouring coffee for us in three years, we’ve done something wrong. We want to scale people up. My mentor told me, ‘A good leader wants people to leave. A great leader expects them to.’”
WHAT’S THE ADVANTAGE OF OPERATING IN A HIGH-BARRIER INDUSTRY LIKE AIRPORTS?
“There’s complexity. Every box goes through X-ray, crew members go through 10-year federal background checks. But it’s also to our benefit. It reduces my competition. Unless you’re a serious player, you’re not trying to participate in airports.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SELF-ORDERING TECHNOLOGY IN YOUR RESTAURANTS?
“It depends. Deploying technology is a strategy that should be done with intention. It doesn’t necessarily replace jobs, it allows savvy business leaders to take that investment and redeploy it in other ways. And let’s be real, it always upsells.”
