Posts Tagged ‘vladimir ponorovsky’

And here I thought Friday would be just another day.  Instead, it brought news of Vladimir Ponorovsky’s crazed e-mail tirade to employees of Paradou, his chichi Provençal restaurant in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan (warning: not for the faint-of-heart or the can’t-stomach-profanity crowd).

In a word: wow.

Of course the former waitress and restaurant employee in me cringes to read something like this, as does the foodie.  But it is my inner marketer who really starts to do some cartwheels when faced with an e-mail of such passion and drama.  Ponorovsky may be a successful business owner (for now), but it strikes me that he has much to learn about business.  Like:

• You can’t afford to treat subordinates (or anyone else) like poo. I worked in Big Law for many years in a supporting role.  I can’t tell you how many first-year attorneys I’ve seen crash and burn, treating support staff inappropriately, yelling and screaming, and acting like jerks.  Surprise, surprise…every single one of them experienced the inevitable “computer problems,” slowdowns, and dismissal of their oh-so-important projects by the same people who would bend over backwards to help more polite and thankful attorneys.  The result?  Pissed-off judges, incensed managing partners…and stagnant careers.  Ponorovsky has made a classic business mistake here:  underestimating the value of the very people who he needs on his side.  Terrible, terrible idea.
• Angry people are really good at spreading the news, especially on the Internet.  Back in the day, it could take years for bad news to travel around the country via Pony Express or smoke signal.  Today…not so much.  An email like Ponorovsky’s is easily disseminated with the click of a button.  And the Internet is a really good archivist.
• Respect matters.  People hem and haw about the decline of respect in a society that has condensed interaction down to 140 characters or less.  But the backlash against Ponorovsky demonstrates that people actually do value respect…to the extent that they’d log on to Yelp and give a one-star rating to a restaurant they’ve never visited just to get their point across.  By disrespecting his staff, Ponorovsky has dealt Paradou a terrible blow.  No matter how delicious their food, the restaurant will never be able to live down its reputation as a place that doesn’t respect its workers (or, by extension, its customers).  Inexcusable.
• Think hard before clicking “send“.  I’ve been guilty of this, too:  jumping the gun on a newsletter with typos or an e-mail that doesn’t quite hit its mark.  If the Ponorovsky/Paradou debacle has taught me anything, it’s to take a moment to pause before I shoot off anything that will represent me or my business.  Is a moment’s relief ever as valuable as your brand?

My sympathies go out to those who have chosen to remain employed at Paradou.  And my hat is tipped, just for a moment, to a man whose very public gaffe may just help us minimize ours.

Photo courtesy of hans.gerwitz