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Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Part 1: A Lapsed Anarchist's Approach to Building a Great Business
Zingerman's is a Utopian version of corporate America in which the company leaves added value everywhere it does business. Every on of it's Community of Businesses leads its category for innovation, excellence and community minded citizenship - and each one brilliantly benefits the others.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
49 people are currently reading
602 people want to read
About the author
Ari Weinzweig
21 books32 followersCO-FOUNDER, ZINGERMAN'S COMMUNITY OF BUSINESSES
In 1982, Ari Weinzweig, along with his partner Paul Saginaw, founded Zingerman’s Delicatessen with a $20,000 bank loan, a Russian History degree from the University of Michigan, 4 years of experience washing dishes, cooking and managing in restaurant kitchens and chutzpah from his hometown of Chicago. They opened the doors with 2 employees and a small selection of specialty foods and exceptional sandwiches.
Today, Zingerman’s Delicatessen is a nationally renowned food icon and the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has grown to 10 businesses with over 750 employees and over $55 million in annual revenue. Aside from the Delicatessen, these businesses include Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Coffee Company, Creamery, Roadhouse, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Candy Manufactory, Cornman Farms and a Korean restaurant that is scheduled to open in 2016. No two businesses in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses are alike but they all share the same Vision and Guiding Principles and deliver “The Zingerman’s Experience” with passion and commitment.
Besides being the Co-Founding Partner and being actively engaged in some aspect of the day-to-day operations and governance of nearly every business in the Zingerman’s Community, Ari Weinzweig is also a prolific writer. His most recent publications are the first 4 of his 6 book series Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading Series: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business (Part 1), Being a Better Leader (Part 2), Managing Ourselves (Part 3) and the newly-released Part 4, The Power of Beliefs in Business. Earlier books include the Zingerman’s Guides to Giving Great Service, Better Bacon, Good Eating, Good Olive Oil, Good Vinegar and Good Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Ari regularly travels across the country (and world) on behalf of ZingTrain, teaching organizations and businesses about Zingerman’s approach to business. He is a sought-after Keynote speaker, having delivered keynotes for Inc. 500, Microsoft Expo Spring Conference, Great Game of Business Gathering of Games, Positive Business Conference at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the American Cheese Society. Most recently, Ari and Paul Saginaw were invited to address an audience of 50,000 for the University of Michigan 2015 Spring Commencement.
In 1982, Ari Weinzweig, along with his partner Paul Saginaw, founded Zingerman’s Delicatessen with a $20,000 bank loan, a Russian History degree from the University of Michigan, 4 years of experience washing dishes, cooking and managing in restaurant kitchens and chutzpah from his hometown of Chicago. They opened the doors with 2 employees and a small selection of specialty foods and exceptional sandwiches.
Today, Zingerman’s Delicatessen is a nationally renowned food icon and the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has grown to 10 businesses with over 750 employees and over $55 million in annual revenue. Aside from the Delicatessen, these businesses include Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Coffee Company, Creamery, Roadhouse, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Candy Manufactory, Cornman Farms and a Korean restaurant that is scheduled to open in 2016. No two businesses in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses are alike but they all share the same Vision and Guiding Principles and deliver “The Zingerman’s Experience” with passion and commitment.
Besides being the Co-Founding Partner and being actively engaged in some aspect of the day-to-day operations and governance of nearly every business in the Zingerman’s Community, Ari Weinzweig is also a prolific writer. His most recent publications are the first 4 of his 6 book series Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading Series: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business (Part 1), Being a Better Leader (Part 2), Managing Ourselves (Part 3) and the newly-released Part 4, The Power of Beliefs in Business. Earlier books include the Zingerman’s Guides to Giving Great Service, Better Bacon, Good Eating, Good Olive Oil, Good Vinegar and Good Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Ari regularly travels across the country (and world) on behalf of ZingTrain, teaching organizations and businesses about Zingerman’s approach to business. He is a sought-after Keynote speaker, having delivered keynotes for Inc. 500, Microsoft Expo Spring Conference, Great Game of Business Gathering of Games, Positive Business Conference at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the American Cheese Society. Most recently, Ari and Paul Saginaw were invited to address an audience of 50,000 for the University of Michigan 2015 Spring Commencement.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 9, 2016
What follows is actually a review of the latest book in the series...but I have read all the volumes including this one.
The Power of Beliefs in Business
Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Volume 4
by Ari Weinzweig
2016, Zingerman's Press, Ann Arbor, MI
588 pages
There are at least dozens of reasons to read this book. If you didn't already know of the Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading series, of which this is the fourth volume, and need some persuasion, read on.
First, for those running or hoping to launch a business, the proposition made by the author in the first volume should be more than compelling. In that book, Ari Weinzweig—Ari from here on, as I believe he would prefer—said that he was often asked for the “secret” that explained how Ann Arbor's most famous food business had grown from a tiny deli to more than $40m business (that was 2012; today sales are over $60m). His answer was that there wasn't a single “secret” but many practices and insights that had helped Zingerman's thrive. More surprisingly, though, he had decided to write them all down in a series of books. How could anyone in small business not want to read that? Especially considering that the phenomenal success of Zingerman's has happened in an industry generally known for anemic profits, enormous staff turnover, and rapid business failure.
So there is much in this volume for the entrepreneur, just as there was in the previous three. These, by the way, weighed in at 351, 369, and 490 pages long. Some of the more interesting elements in this installment, which pick up on earlier themes: how to develop the vision for your business; how to find, train, and keep great employees; and the bright side of customer complaints (and why you should thank them for complaining!).
But the topic at the heart of this book is belief. This seems a bit incongruous at first. The skeptic would certainly wonder what this has to do with business. And Ari admits that this area of inquiry was a new one for him. “After living most of my life with beliefs that I barely even realized I had,” he writes, “the last few years of studying this subject have been life and business altering. While in the past I paid a lot of attention to actions, arguments, and analysis, I gave little or no thought to beliefs. That, too, has changed nearly 180 degrees.” Given the depth of the arguments made here, I believe that one.
And this is where the book will interest a much wider base of readers beyond the entrepreneurs. We all work in organizations. Some work in large companies or schools. Some in much smaller entities. But the one-woman business has a network of suppliers with whom she too must work as a team. Let me put it out there: even those who have lived their entire lives in organizations and spent considerable time and money studying them (that means you, MBAs) will gain a tremendous amount from this book. What is said here, it can be guaranteed, wasn't and couldn't be taught in any business school. And this is true above all in examining the beliefs held by many different people in a gamut of roles in business, from the busboy to the CEO.
That said, I think the book should also get a readership well beyond those who want to think about business. The issue of beliefs is necessarily profound and touches every aspect of our lives. It's an intricate, thorny, and fascinating subject. To take just one element: is it useful to spend much effort figuring out whether belief or action comes first? Another: what about the truth or falsity of beliefs? Does truth signify simply that which is true for you or is there some independent yardstick? Here too long digressions are interesting and worthwhile (and Ari has a few of these). But the usable and teachable point is that beliefs and actions are linked in a cycle where each drives the other, that the cycle can work in forward (better beliefs and better actions impelling each other along) or, sadly, in reverse, and that, approached consciously, unhelpful beliefs (e.g., “you just can't trust anybody”) can be identified and altered. The book shows the reader how this can be done. Impressively so, in fact.
It comes as a delightful surprise to those who might have been looking primarily for business wisdom to see the emphasis on history in the latest book and the three earlier volumes. Ari shows that history lives in buildings, in towns, and, above all, in people. The world of which we are a part is the product of a whole antecedent set of events. We are shaped by these and the people who made them, including the anarchists that are so central to the author's outlook. What is striking about the series is the way in which Ari brings these connections to the fore. The reader becomes far more aware of these living connections to history for having read the books. They are not works of history per se. But they are a credit to Ari's training in history (his field when an undergrad at the University of Michigan) and it's not simply a matter what he studied decades ago; he has brought to bear a lifetime of engagement with history in the GGL series. I would be surprised if anyone were to read the latest book as a whole, or even excerpts, and not go on to chase down some of his many historical references or pick up at least one item from his pages-long list of suggested further reading.
So we have the latest in Zingerman's “secrets” which the author can publish, making them more or less “open-source”, without fear on his part that he has undermined his own business. Interesting, no? Hard to imagine any Fortune 500 company doing the same. How is it possible? At least two reasons come to mind. First, as Ari himself points out, “copying” Zingerman's would be a very long and laborious process. Among his natural laws of business is that “It generally takes a lot longer to make something great happen than people think.” It requires an enormous effort. Considered from a traditional business standpoint, it is ironic then that Ari wants other organizations to adopt his recommendations and make that effort. Moreover, he readily acknowledges that training Zingerman's employees means that at least some will leave and start businesses that sell food in the same markets. The business is knowingly creating tomorrow's potential competitors. But, in reality, this may not be the danger that it appears to be. Businesses that take up the GGL series may well become part of a collaborative ecosystem with Zingerman's at its center. This is not simply speculation—the series is full of testimonials from people who have learned from the organization and now supply to it and buy from it. This extended network, by the way, would be a great subject for serious study.
The last word, even in a brief review, should belong to the author. It's hard not to think about and be moved by this statement, which is only one of many that might be selected as exemplifying the nature and caliber of the book: “I'd say that a technically terrific strategy, in the hands of nonbelievers, is just about guaranteed to fail; by contrast, a B-level strategy, put in place by people who are passionate about what they're doing, is far more likely to succeed.” Indeed. And “The Power of Beliefs in Business” will show you how to help them find that passion and success.
The Power of Beliefs in Business
Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading, Volume 4
by Ari Weinzweig
2016, Zingerman's Press, Ann Arbor, MI
588 pages
There are at least dozens of reasons to read this book. If you didn't already know of the Zingerman's Guide to Good Leading series, of which this is the fourth volume, and need some persuasion, read on.
First, for those running or hoping to launch a business, the proposition made by the author in the first volume should be more than compelling. In that book, Ari Weinzweig—Ari from here on, as I believe he would prefer—said that he was often asked for the “secret” that explained how Ann Arbor's most famous food business had grown from a tiny deli to more than $40m business (that was 2012; today sales are over $60m). His answer was that there wasn't a single “secret” but many practices and insights that had helped Zingerman's thrive. More surprisingly, though, he had decided to write them all down in a series of books. How could anyone in small business not want to read that? Especially considering that the phenomenal success of Zingerman's has happened in an industry generally known for anemic profits, enormous staff turnover, and rapid business failure.
So there is much in this volume for the entrepreneur, just as there was in the previous three. These, by the way, weighed in at 351, 369, and 490 pages long. Some of the more interesting elements in this installment, which pick up on earlier themes: how to develop the vision for your business; how to find, train, and keep great employees; and the bright side of customer complaints (and why you should thank them for complaining!).
But the topic at the heart of this book is belief. This seems a bit incongruous at first. The skeptic would certainly wonder what this has to do with business. And Ari admits that this area of inquiry was a new one for him. “After living most of my life with beliefs that I barely even realized I had,” he writes, “the last few years of studying this subject have been life and business altering. While in the past I paid a lot of attention to actions, arguments, and analysis, I gave little or no thought to beliefs. That, too, has changed nearly 180 degrees.” Given the depth of the arguments made here, I believe that one.
And this is where the book will interest a much wider base of readers beyond the entrepreneurs. We all work in organizations. Some work in large companies or schools. Some in much smaller entities. But the one-woman business has a network of suppliers with whom she too must work as a team. Let me put it out there: even those who have lived their entire lives in organizations and spent considerable time and money studying them (that means you, MBAs) will gain a tremendous amount from this book. What is said here, it can be guaranteed, wasn't and couldn't be taught in any business school. And this is true above all in examining the beliefs held by many different people in a gamut of roles in business, from the busboy to the CEO.
That said, I think the book should also get a readership well beyond those who want to think about business. The issue of beliefs is necessarily profound and touches every aspect of our lives. It's an intricate, thorny, and fascinating subject. To take just one element: is it useful to spend much effort figuring out whether belief or action comes first? Another: what about the truth or falsity of beliefs? Does truth signify simply that which is true for you or is there some independent yardstick? Here too long digressions are interesting and worthwhile (and Ari has a few of these). But the usable and teachable point is that beliefs and actions are linked in a cycle where each drives the other, that the cycle can work in forward (better beliefs and better actions impelling each other along) or, sadly, in reverse, and that, approached consciously, unhelpful beliefs (e.g., “you just can't trust anybody”) can be identified and altered. The book shows the reader how this can be done. Impressively so, in fact.
It comes as a delightful surprise to those who might have been looking primarily for business wisdom to see the emphasis on history in the latest book and the three earlier volumes. Ari shows that history lives in buildings, in towns, and, above all, in people. The world of which we are a part is the product of a whole antecedent set of events. We are shaped by these and the people who made them, including the anarchists that are so central to the author's outlook. What is striking about the series is the way in which Ari brings these connections to the fore. The reader becomes far more aware of these living connections to history for having read the books. They are not works of history per se. But they are a credit to Ari's training in history (his field when an undergrad at the University of Michigan) and it's not simply a matter what he studied decades ago; he has brought to bear a lifetime of engagement with history in the GGL series. I would be surprised if anyone were to read the latest book as a whole, or even excerpts, and not go on to chase down some of his many historical references or pick up at least one item from his pages-long list of suggested further reading.
So we have the latest in Zingerman's “secrets” which the author can publish, making them more or less “open-source”, without fear on his part that he has undermined his own business. Interesting, no? Hard to imagine any Fortune 500 company doing the same. How is it possible? At least two reasons come to mind. First, as Ari himself points out, “copying” Zingerman's would be a very long and laborious process. Among his natural laws of business is that “It generally takes a lot longer to make something great happen than people think.” It requires an enormous effort. Considered from a traditional business standpoint, it is ironic then that Ari wants other organizations to adopt his recommendations and make that effort. Moreover, he readily acknowledges that training Zingerman's employees means that at least some will leave and start businesses that sell food in the same markets. The business is knowingly creating tomorrow's potential competitors. But, in reality, this may not be the danger that it appears to be. Businesses that take up the GGL series may well become part of a collaborative ecosystem with Zingerman's at its center. This is not simply speculation—the series is full of testimonials from people who have learned from the organization and now supply to it and buy from it. This extended network, by the way, would be a great subject for serious study.
The last word, even in a brief review, should belong to the author. It's hard not to think about and be moved by this statement, which is only one of many that might be selected as exemplifying the nature and caliber of the book: “I'd say that a technically terrific strategy, in the hands of nonbelievers, is just about guaranteed to fail; by contrast, a B-level strategy, put in place by people who are passionate about what they're doing, is far more likely to succeed.” Indeed. And “The Power of Beliefs in Business” will show you how to help them find that passion and success.
October 16, 2014
I adore Zingerman's and Ari's philosophy on business. Distilling down, Zingerman's is about creating outstanding products that are backed with exceptional service.
Building a Great Business introduces its ideas in a series of brief, self-contained essays, analogous to Zingerman's itself, which is a collection of independent food businesses operating under a broader vision. Weinzweig places his ideas within the context of the company's backstory, which is fun to follow.
Though Weinzweig's ideas are useful for businesses at any stage, I think they are most valuable to a smaller company that survived its infancy, picked up some traction, but hasn't defined a clear vision or culture.
While it's interesting, for me Building a Great Business was not compelling, because I have always preferred authors who take a meta-analytical approach to subjects. Weinzweig never departs from his happy-go-lucky Zingerman's bubble, and for me that's a dealbreaker.
Building a Great Business introduces its ideas in a series of brief, self-contained essays, analogous to Zingerman's itself, which is a collection of independent food businesses operating under a broader vision. Weinzweig places his ideas within the context of the company's backstory, which is fun to follow.
Though Weinzweig's ideas are useful for businesses at any stage, I think they are most valuable to a smaller company that survived its infancy, picked up some traction, but hasn't defined a clear vision or culture.
While it's interesting, for me Building a Great Business was not compelling, because I have always preferred authors who take a meta-analytical approach to subjects. Weinzweig never departs from his happy-go-lucky Zingerman's bubble, and for me that's a dealbreaker.
April 18, 2013
Ari is a great writer and an inspiring leader. His approach to business gives me much insight as to how to run my own small group of people in the lab. My anarchist approach was never a boasting matter, but I saw, after reading Ari's book, how it could work and work wonderfully. My lab has been running much more smoothly since I read Ari's book. Everyone is taking initiative, getting things done, and implementing thier own creative ideas that in sum makes each day a delight and a joy for me. I thank him for all the great advice that, implemented, has taken the stress out of work and given my lab new vitality.
January 10, 2017
I found the essential Zing book a source of solid guidance on how to build an organization that reflects your values. With occasional dashes into history and excerpts from great, but less frequently read philosophers and radicals, Ari reminds us that businesses large and small could be positive organizations. If you are a reader, this book is so much better than the business books out there. I also like the hardback book's format. I liked holding it, and the layout is a pleasure to look at.
January 18, 2019
I think this is the best business book I’ve read. Quirky, unique, and inspiring. It covers all the essentials in building a great business, and many of the lessons would carry over to non-profits as well.
I can’t wait to visit Zingerman’s in person.
I can’t wait to visit Zingerman’s in person.
December 13, 2013
I enjoy Ari's writing style and his personal anecdotes, including reading reco's! Kudos for his anarchist philosophy :)
Jim Northrup, Native American storyteller -- Anishinaabe (Native American)
“Here’s to much more rewarding, sustainable, and interesting imperfect interaction to come.” - Ari
recipe ~
- put together a mission statement
- write a vision of greatness
- create the culture we feel good about (and how to make it even better for the future)
- write guiding principles (and really use them).
Work hard to be kind to each other
Chip Conley, founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, California’s largest boutique hotel group
Contrast, Composition and Content
Our world is at least slightly better off: that people enjoy their lives more, feel more inspired and able to make a difference, appreciate each other more, are more patient with each other… and that a whole lot of lives have been made better in the process.
Jim Northrup, Native American storyteller -- Anishinaabe (Native American)
“Here’s to much more rewarding, sustainable, and interesting imperfect interaction to come.” - Ari
recipe ~
- put together a mission statement
- write a vision of greatness
- create the culture we feel good about (and how to make it even better for the future)
- write guiding principles (and really use them).
Work hard to be kind to each other
Chip Conley, founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, California’s largest boutique hotel group
Contrast, Composition and Content
Our world is at least slightly better off: that people enjoy their lives more, feel more inspired and able to make a difference, appreciate each other more, are more patient with each other… and that a whole lot of lives have been made better in the process.
October 22, 2016
Ari's way of thinking has formed a good part of my "unconscious competence" over the last six years of organization building. Being able to sit down for chats with him in this form anytime I like helps me remember the originality, genius and abundance he's been helping generate in my town for more than 30 years.
I literally read this by the fire with a cup of tea like I'm talking with an old friend. It's 5-10 nights' worth of good practical conversation.
The story-telling and effusive curiosity is generous as anything; Ari is utterly relatable and conversational and passionate; the final product is - of course - immaculately edited.
There's a new one in this series out now - The Power of Beliefs in Business - sitting by the fireplace waiting for me to finish re-reading this classic.
I literally read this by the fire with a cup of tea like I'm talking with an old friend. It's 5-10 nights' worth of good practical conversation.
The story-telling and effusive curiosity is generous as anything; Ari is utterly relatable and conversational and passionate; the final product is - of course - immaculately edited.
There's a new one in this series out now - The Power of Beliefs in Business - sitting by the fireplace waiting for me to finish re-reading this classic.
April 20, 2017
This is the most informative, practical and eye-opening business/leadership books I've read to date. Ari's thoughts on leadership and management are so common-sense they will make you say "Of course! Why haven't they thought of that at my place of work?!". The practices outlined in this book are conceptually very simple but quite difficult in execution simply because the transparency, open-mindedness and forward thinking put forward are so rare and counter-intuitive to the business world today. However, Ari's in-depth analysis of the culture he has created at Zingermans make these business altering ideas attainable. My favorite topic was visioning. It is a concept I've used regularly since reading this book. It can be applied to projects big and small, from what a company as a whole will be doing in ten years to what a week long project will look like on Friday afternoon.
July 21, 2024
Awesome book about how to instill long term sustainable growth in any organization.
April 21, 2015
I really enjoy Ari's perspective on what can be a dry topic. I've actually enjoyed reading about visioning, systems and business principles. This isn't new ground for me, but I really am enjoying the different perspective and emphasis from Zingerman's. I think I want to try using this at work, to get others thinking more strategically...
November 17, 2016
This is a pretty great book about running a small business without the douchey corporate slant. A guys tips on making and growing a small deli in michigan from good to great, and expanding. there are lots of good ideas in here
March 13, 2014
I love these concepts and Ari.
March 16, 2014
There's a lot to learn from the Zingerman's experience, and it's not all about food.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews