Panda Express co-founder speaks on leadership choices and service
Panda Express is a “people business”, said Panda Restaurant Group, Inc. co-founder Andrew Cherng as he shared tips that helped him on his road to success developing his Asian cuisine chain from scratch.
Cherng’s presentation was part of the “Partners in Business” seminar, held Wednesday, March 23.
“We want “leadership” and “Huntsman students” to be synonymous,” said Ken Snyder, executive dean and chief administrative officer of the Huntsman School of Business. “They are the leaders of tomorrow and we want people to think of them that way.”
Snyder said one of the goals of “Partners in Business” is to introduce different ways of looking at leadership and what it means.
The seminar began with Boyd Craig, a member of the executive board of the Panda Restaurant Group and executive director of the Stephen R. Covey Group at FranklinCovey Co., who shared a few insights on leadership and helped introduce Cherng’s presentation.
“Leadership is a choice, not a position, and it’s unlimited,” Craig said. “Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.”
As Craig was about to turn the time over to Cherng, he challenged the audience to “every day, take three minutes and answer this question: ‘What can I do to light the fire of another person?'”
Cherng agreed with this challenge, and said, “If you inspire your people, they will in turn inspire your guests.”
Cherng said focusing on people has been the key to Panda Express’s success, which has helped the business grow from one restaurant into 1,400 restaurants that employ more than 18,000 people.
Cherng explained how Panda Express continually seeks to improve conditions for its workforce, by always acknowledging others for their accomplishments and paying employees an hourly wage that is at least a dollar above the industry average.
Wynne Lippincott, general manager of the Panda Express in Logan, said, “They really focus on the people, they walk the walk, they don’t just talk the talk.”
Cheng said he firmly believes “everyone can be more than who they are, but it is the way we talk to each other that will create that space.”
Cherng also said education is important to the company, and because of this they are beginning to learn the language of possibility, which helps define what is possible in the lives of each employee.
“We’re really running a school, there are tremendous possibilities with everyone in our organization,” Cherng said
Panda Express offers general management and Spanish classes to help educate the workforce.
Lippincott said most of the staff members at the Panda Express in Logan either take university classes, ESL classes or computer courses, or pursue other educational opportunities.
“We encourage that,” Lippincott said, “And the skills we teach here they will use anywhere.”
Cherng also said he personally enjoys changing and learning new things.
“To become a leader I am constantly working on all aspects of my life,” he said.
Cherng said he built his business largely through the process of trial and error, having no formal business education.
“When you get to 50 restaurants you start to panic, you say, ‘I’m not a businessman,’ so you turn to consultants, and they don’t know what to do either,” he said. “So you have to take the challenge fully on yourself, anything you need to do, you need to believe you can do it.”
– keaton.reed@aggiemail.usu.edu