We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mary Krikorian. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mary below.

Alright, Mary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share a story that illustrates an important or relevant lesson you learned in school

I think the most important thing I learned about my education, which includes a doctorate degree in law, is that school does not prepare you for the real world. School is great to provide you with a basis of knowledge to help navigate the real world but it gives the wrong impression of how the real world works. When you are in school, you are told that you need to provide the “right” answer (thus implying that there are “wrong” answers). It’s not until you get out into the real world that you realize that life doesn’t offer right or wrong choices, yes or no answers. Everything is in shades of grey. You have to have the ability to look at a particular situation and evaluate the pros and cons of different courses of action and choose the path that is more right for your company but may be more wrong for someone else.

How wonderful our lives would be as business owners if there was always a clearly right answer and a clearly wrong answer. That very, very rarely happens. We have to draw not only on the education we received from schools but also our own life experiences, the experiences of mentors and fellow business owners, the experiences of our staff and clientele to try to reach the best answer for our business. That’s why it is so vital that we continue to grow throughout our lives. We have to continuously strive to learn more, become better, not become complacent with the status quo. Just because it worked for us in the past doesn’t mean it will continue to work for us in the future. Consider huge businesses like Sears, Block Buster, and even Blackberry. At one time in history, each of these businesses was at the pinnacle of success but there inability to adapt and change resulted in the ultimate demise of the companies.

The most important lesson I learned in school was that knowledge is power. But you can’t stop learning when you graduate. You have to consistently work every day to be the best person you can be and the includes continuing to grow and learn throughout your life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My husband, Serge, and I have been business partners since the early 1990s. We met in college and knew that one day we wanted to own our own business so we both pursued post-graduate degrees – he received his MBA of the University of Arkansas and I received my juris doctorate, also from the UofA.

When we started looking for a business to purchase, the only one we could afford was a small, carry-out and delivery pizza restaurant. I continued practicing law while my husband worked in the restaurant. I would come and help during lunch rush and after work and on weekends. Together, we took that business to the top 1% in the nation for independent pizza restaurants.

Being very young and naive (27 years old), we thought we knew everything there was to know about running a restaurant so we opened up a dine-in restaurant and failed spectacularly! We came back out of the dine-in restaurant back into the carry-out and delivery pizza business with our tails tucked between our legs.

While watching one of our sons play baseball in a local park, one of the moms asked if we could cater a lunch for her and immediately, our catering business exploded. We eventually closed our pizza restaurant and became full-time caterers. That was about 25 years ago. We now own one of the largest catering companies in Arkansas and we have grown our facilities from 1,200 sq. ft. to a little over 10,000 sq. ft., encompassing kitchen space, offices, and a warehouse of catering equipment and decor.

The thing I am most proud of in our business is that we are a Heart Leadership-run company. That means that we recognize that our staff, the faces, voices, and hands of our business, are the most valuable asset that we have and we strive to treat them as such. We have not always been heart leaders and it has been a lot of work to reach the point where we are now and there is still a long way to go but since making the change, we have seen our employee turnover dramatically reduced, our employee satisfaction dramatically increased, and our customers’ responses to the services we offer, not just our food, has been overwhelmingly positive.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

The best advice I can offer for managing a team and maintaining high morale is to treat your staff as the most valuable asset your business has. Staff are the faces and voices of your business. In our catering company, our staff have the most interaction with clients and their guests at catered events. If our staff is unhappy in their jobs, that will be seen by clients and their guests. On the flip side, if our staff truly enjoy working for our company and the people that they work with, that will also translate to the clients and their guests.

Heart Leadership has been a journey for our leadership team. It has not always been easy. I personally come from a background where the boss is expected to be very autocratic, directing the staff to do this and do that. I was also taught that staff should leave all of their personal stuff at the door when they come to work. With Heart Leadership, we ask our staff to bring their whole selves to work. We want to get to know them as people, not just employees. To that end, we have established a Culture Club that hosts weekly lunches for all of our staff where we share a meal, play a game, and recognize co-workers for their outstanding work or behavior. The Culture Club also organizes outings and parties for the staff so that they can get to know each other outside of the workplace. We have raised money from fellow staff members to help co-workers purchase Christmas presents for their children, or help a co-worker furnish an apartment for himself and his son after a difficult divorce. We attend co-workers graduations, theatrical performances, school events, etc.

As a result of our efforts, our turnover rate is extremely low, our employee morale is very high, and even staff members that leave us to pursue other options often come back to work an occasional event or attend a company party. Our team members recruit their own family and friends to come and work for us. Also, we receive calls from parents of our younger workers telling us how grateful they are that their child’s first job was with us because we taught them that work doesn’t have to suck.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The biggest impact on my management style was materials about Heart Leadership. My journey began with a Heart Leadership conference called mibe (which stands for Make It Better Everyday). Mibe is a division of Footer’s Catering in Arvada, Colorado, just outside of Denver. My husband started his Heart Leadership journey before I did so when he asked if I wanted to attend a Heart Leadership conference in Denver, all I heard was do you want to go to Denver. This conference changed my life and caused a 180 degree turnabout in my management style. This is a recurring conference and details can be found at www.themibe.com

The Heart Leadership books that most impacted my thinking are a couple of books written by Tommy Spaulding: The Heart Led Leader and The Gift of Influence. I also learned a lot from Mark Miller, better known for his “My Pleasure” approach for Chick-fil-A. While I have found many of Mark’s books insightful, Chess Not Checkers, The Heart of Leadership, Uncommon Greatness, and Culture Rules are my particular favorites.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www..VibrantOccasions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vibrantoccasionscatering/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VibrantOccasionsCatering/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vibrantoccasionscatering/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CookingwiththeKriks
• Other: Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@vibrantoccasionscatering
  Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/VibrantOccasionsCatering/

Image Credits

Chelsea Duff Photography
Kayleigh Ross Photography