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The roles and organizational setup required for thought leadership programs can take inspiration from fine dining restaurants. They are both creative with high expectations of excellence in delivery.

What’s new: Thought leadership and fine dining require excellence at every position in the team, with apparent similarities between roles and setup.

Why it matters: The organizational structure of fine-dining restaurants is well-established and follows traditional French practices, characterized by a strict hierarchy.

👨🏼‍💻 Executive Chef: The executive chef defines the restaurant’s direction and designs the menus. The executive chef’s personal brand is crucial for elevating the brand of new restaurants. Executive chefs are not typically involved in day-to-day kitchen operations. Executive chefs come in two flavors: the ones who get their hands dirty and the ones who tell you to get your hands dirty.

Executive thought leaders are responsible for defining the themes and topics to address. Their personal brand is crucial in lending credibility to the program. They are your most sought-after speakers. Expect two flavors here as well: those who do the original thinking and those who prefer to present it.

👨🏼‍🍳 Chef de cuisine: The chef de cuisine drives the creative and innovative side of the menu, crafting new, exciting dishes within the given restaurant theme. They work closely with local producers to find the best ingredients. Quality stems from the leadership and attention to detail provided by the Chef de Cuisine.

The driver for a thought leadership program is responsible for ensuring content creation stays on track for defined themes and topics. Each topic needs a good balance between insights and facts.

🍷🥂🍾 Sommelier: The sommelier is responsible for the wine cellar, selects the wines featured on the menu, and pairs them with various dishes. This job involves carefully matching beverages, which enhances the overall experience.

A thought leadership initiative often targets multiple audiences. There is value in pursuing a two-pronged approach: a subset of your story targeting a broader audience and tailored stories for a specific audience. The tailored option is most valuable for your audience once sold on the initial value.

🥗🥘🍱 Sous chef: A sous chef can assume all positions in the kitchen and often approves dishes before they go out to the guests.

Bringing stories to available channels is an art. You compete for audiences’ attention with a mix of owned, earned, and paid channels. Timing to market is vital, and close monitoring of content performance helps you maximize traction.

🥖🫕🍰 Line cooks: A line cook performs a specific type of workflow: grills, cooking sauce, salad, pastries

Content creation is a crucial component of Thought Leader programs. You work from a portfolio of proven content formats, allowing audiences to choose what they enjoy the most and match the depth they want to explore. Content creators develop high skill sets over time for the tools they use, but capturing and editing video is different from writing, proofreading, and laying out a paper. Expect high specialization here.

🥑🥒🥝 Prep cooks: Prep cooks prepare the ingredients required for the menu, a role that requires a sharp knife and excellent chopping skills. Finding a balance between what to prepare in advance and what to do on demand is crucial for optimizing delivery times and minimizing waste.

Thought leadership relies on quality inputs prepared before you start execution:

• validated customer problems
• business outcomes you want to affect
• Solution details building trust that you can deliver
• Data quantifying the business you can expect
• clear connection to strategy and strategy execution

Without good ingredients from the start, you will slow down execution speed and have to compromise on quality.

⬇️ Bottom line: This is not a firm role description for your Thought Leadership, but it can serve as a benchmark for what it will take to deliver. Too many on a position or staffing gaps make it hard to provide the high quality required to make an impact.

Additional reading suggestions

• Every job in a Michelin Star Kitchen [VIDEO] – by Bon Appetit
• 18 fine dining job roles explained [BLOGPOST] – by Fine Dining Lovers, San Pellegrino
• The kitchen hierarchy explained [BLOGPOST] – by CPD Online College
• The 5 chef levels and their role in the kitchen [BLOGBOST] – by Indeed
• What cooking can teach you about innovation and creativity [ARTICLE] – by Lizeth Aranda, Harvard Business Review
• Why the art of cooking is like great leadership [ARTICLE] – by Jason Richmond, CEO World Magazine