Culture

Here are the 5 Key Areas That Make Us Different

But first check out this fun video we made from 2008…

1. Three Bottom Lines Instead of One

At Zingerman’s, our day-to-day efforts are directed at delivering winning results in three key areas: Great Food, Great Service and Great Finance. These are our three bottom lines. For us to be successful in our work we must hit our targets in all three of those areas. We work to stay focused on delivering results in our hour-to-hour, day-to-day, week-to-week work in every area of the ZCoB.

2. Our Guiding Principles

Zingerman’s has always been a values-driven business. Our Guiding Principles outline how we work together and how we relate to our guests, our community, and our suppliers. We hope that you share many of the principles by which we live and that you will contribute to making them stronger.

3. Thinking

We believe in the intelligence and creativity of our staff, our guests and our suppliers. Most everything we do is designed to appeal to or build on that intelligence and creativity. In a way, it makes working here more challenging—there are no mindless jobs at Zingerman’s. We encourage you to think, to learn, to ask questions, and to help us continue to grow, change, and make Zingerman’s into a better place to shop, eat and work.

4. Taking Responsibility

Being successful at Zingerman’s means taking responsibility for what goes on around us—our own work, the work environment, the quality of our food, service and community. If something is not right, each of us is committed to acting to help improve it. Responsibility means, quite simply, doing what we said we were going to do when we said we were going to do it. Once you make a commitment, there are only three acceptable options:

a) Meet the commitment as made.
b) Get help in advance of the deadline so that you still meet the original commitment.
c) Go back to the person to whom you made the commitment and negotiate a new commitment.
Ignoring, forgetting or pretending the commitment doesn’t exist are not acceptable options.

5. Proactive People

At Zingerman’s, we encourage our entire staff to take a proactive role as often as possible. We believe that positive change starts with each of us, and we are committed to making it happen. When we see a guest in need, we help them. When there is a problem we work quickly to resolve it. Don’t wait for someone else. Make decisions that will help our guests and improve the quality of our food; we encourage you to take risks, make mistakes and learn from them. Think and act to make things right.