Ken Young doesn’t want to be the sole mind or voice behind a decision.
“I encourage the people in our organizations to come up with offbeat ideas,” he says. “I’ll do it myself. Then, let’s all shoot holes in it, and who knows, maybe by the time we’re done, we come up with something that is excellent or we’ve decided not to do something.”
But Young, co-founder and president of Ovations Food Services LP, hasn’t always led this way.
“When I was younger, I didn’t delegate nearly as much in decision-making,” he says. “I was much more hands-on. But as I picked up more responsibility, at a certain point, I said, ‘I’ve got to let other people make some of these decisions. I’ve got to let them do their thing. I can’t be involved in everything.’”
He’s led the company from $112 million in 2006 revenue to $170 million in 2008 revenue.
“I think that’s one of the things that has permitted our food services company to grow at an accelerated rate because our clients know that our management is permitted to make those decisions, and I’ll explain that to our clients also,” says Young, who also owns four minor league baseball teams and one minor league hockey team.
It’s not to say that Young wouldn’t have been successful with his old style of decision-making. Certainly, there are plenty of old-fashioned, strict leaders who want everything done their way. While that could work, they could be missing out on great opportunities.
“When you start looking at someone who is a dictator, it’s tough changing their opinion,” he says. “The old manager could have been successful, but he could be three times more successful if he did it a different way.”
More articles from this edition
