Interesting review in Decatur, Alabama daily paper about Fred’s relevance to today’s business leaders (and his inspiration to a new generation of entrepreneurs).

THE DECATUR DAILY 6/20/2010
(Decatur, AL)

THE BIRTH OF CUSTOMER SERVICE
By John Davis
Special to The Daily

If you have visited the Grand Canyon, you’ve seen one of the Fred Harvey legacies: the magnificent El Tovar Hotel. Harvey, the man who virtually invented the idea of chain business enterprises, was a true American success story — so much so that he is still with us in spirit.

Only occasionally do we in America commemorate longevity. We are the nation of the new, improved and exciting. This is hardly a recipe for endurance. This is particularly true in the business world. Yet, in this remarkable study of the life of Harvey, founder of the first chain business in America, we have the bellwether of today’s American business scene.

This book is the work of Stephen Fried, adjunct professor at Columbia University’s famed journalism school, investigative reporter for many top-flight magazines, not to mention being an award-winning author. Fried weaves a tale all the more valuable for its readability, its insightful research, as well as its remarkably broad historical brush.

We see Harvey not as a lone phenomenon, but as a man of his times, when business boomed after the American Civil War, and the spirit of the conquest of the newly opened American West drew forth men of adventure, risk and drive.

Painful travel
When Harvey arrived in this country from England in the mid-1800s, he encountered a transportation and travel nightmare on the American road system. It was always easier to travel by boat, because travel by land at that time was a painful, torturous journey. Not only were the roads of dubious quality and conveyances worse, but the food along the way was chancy and horrific at best.

Operating under the theory “We won’t see him again” in reference to the traveler, tavern keepers, hoteliers and restaurateurs were little motivated to operate quality stores. Food was of questionable quality, customer service unknown and business ethics a true question mark.
Harvey took advantage of the travesty of travel with the advent of the railroad. The great cross-country tracks, which followed the old Santa Fe Trail, were his first business models.

He began a series of restaurants that would be staffed by trained waitresses, who came to be known as Harvey Girls. Further, he introduced the idea of standardization of quality, caring customer service, timeliness and repeatable, good restaurant experiences. This was to revolutionize America.

What Harvey did then was introduce the value of the chain business. Fried shows how Harvey’s many contacts across the nation with well known travelers took advantage of even Teddy Roosevelt, whose Rough Riders held their reunion in one of the Harvey Hotels. Fried shows that because this was a maintainable business model, Fred Harvey’s vision allowed it to continue after his death. Fried reveals the roles of Harvey’s relatives, among whom Ford, Minnie and Freddy played great parts in the inherited chain.

It became clear that, despite the great distances involved in traveling in the American West, such a concept would work.

He was successful because he showed that a proper treatment of the customer was key to repeat business, and the fact that he offered his services in more than one place allowed the traveler to choose his company over and over. They planned ahead to take advantage of a Harvey hotel because they knew it would be clean, satisfying and operationally reliable.

This is a delightful, historically insightful book that reads well and with verve. I’d recommend this type study to anyone who wants to see why our country’s imaginative entrepreneurs have become watchwords for most businesses today.

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