{"id":90028,"date":"2025-11-18T10:41:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T15:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/?p=90028"},"modified":"2026-10-10T15:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T19:25:15","slug":"will-guidara-s-playbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/will-guidara-s-playbook\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Guidara’s playbook"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Unreasonable Hospitality<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Your P&L Is Your Only Honest Positioning Statement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stop reading. Do this now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pull up last year’s P&L. Find the line item for “client experience.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now open your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re client-centric.” “True partners.” “Transformation-focused.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of these documents is lying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guess which one your clients believe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Impossible Rise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, Eleven Madison Park ranked #50 on the World’s Best Restaurants list. Dead last. A struggling two-star brasserie in a market dominated by Per Se, Le Bernardin, and Jean-Georges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven years later: #1 in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not by hiring a celebrity chef. Not by molecular gastronomy. Not by outspending competitors on ingredient quality or culinary innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By making a structural decision, competitors could see but couldn’t copy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not because they lacked the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because copying it required destroying everything their organizations were built on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision cost $150,000 annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The return? A position so strong that a $2 hot dog became more valuable than any marketing campaign competitors could buy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $2 Legend<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A European couple is dining at Eleven Madison Park. Mid-meal, they mention to their server they’re leaving New York tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re sad we never tried a real New York hot dog.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

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Unreasonable Hospitality Your P&L Is Your Only Honest Positioning Statement Stop reading. Do this now. Pull up last year’s P&L. Find the line item for “client experience.” Not there? Now open your website. “We’re client-centric.” “True partners.” “Transformation-focused.” One of these documents is lying. Guess which one your clients believe? The Impossible Rise In 2010, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"paid_subscribers","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":true,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"rank_math_title":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_focus_keyword":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digest-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7CVvN-nq4","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90268,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90028\/revisions\/90268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}