The Moxie Series: Michelle Garnaut

What were the initial challenges of running your business in a foreign country?

Ah! Millions, millions! There were so many, I can’t even begin to remember them all. There were some things that were easier. We were paving a new road, because there really weren’t independent western restaurants, it was a whole new concept. The advantages were that you could sort of write the rulebook. I mean, you couldn’t actually write the rulebook, there were fire regulations and hygiene bureau regulations, but they weren’t as rigid or formed as they are now. It was much easier to work around the framework and everyone was very good to help.

In a lot of ways, there were things that were easier, but in other ways, it was so difficult, because there was so much I didn’t understand. So, the challenges were enormous. There was much more leeway at the time for minor and petty corruption, so we had to be really careful not to get caught up in that. Now, we don’t have to deal with this corruption. Back then, there wasn’t a rulebook, and you had to have connections to do anything and pay for those connections! Now, if you want a telephone line, there’s a system. Back then, we had to know somebody to get the telephone line and pay 8,000 to 10,000 RMB. But within 6 months of opening, the actual cost dropped to only 400 RMB, which just goes to show the speed of China’s progress. There were many, many challenges in the beginning that you just wouldn’t have if you opened a business now.

But on the other hand, because there was something new happening, it was much easier to talk to people. I mean try now, calling the head of the Commercial Bureau of Shanghai District. Forget about it! Whereas then, I probably had the guy’s telephone number. Because they wanted this to happen, too. They were keen for this new thing. The challenges were enormous, but in some ways, things were easier.

在国外开展业务的最初挑战是什么？

啊！太多太多了！多到我甚至不知从哪里讲起。有些事情比较容易。我们正在铺路，因为实际上这里没有独立的西餐厅，这是一个全新的概念。优点是您可以编写规则。我的意思是，您实际上无法编写规则，其中有消防法规和卫生局法规，但是它们不像现在这样僵硬或结构化。围绕框架进行工作要容易得多，而且每个人都非常乐于助人。

在很多方面，有些事情比较容易，但是在其他方面，则是如此困难，因为太多事情我都不了解。因此，挑战是巨大的。当时对小额贪污仍保留些余地，所以我们需要很小心避免哪些情况。现在，我们不必处理这种事情。那时没有规则手册，你必须要有关系才能执行操作并为此付费！现在如果您想要一个电话，可按照规则获得。但那时，我们必须结识某个人才能获得电话线并为此支付8,000-10,000元人民币。但是我们开门六个月内，实际费用下跌到400元人民币。这就表现中国发展的快速。而现在，您不会面对像当时开展业务初期遇到的那么多挑战。

但是另一方面，由于发生了新的事情，与人交谈变得容易得多。我的意思是现在可以尝试给上海市商务局局长打电话。算了吧！那时，我大概有那个人的电话号码。因为他们也希望这种情况发生。他们热衷于这种新事物。这挑战是巨大的，但在某些方面，事情要容易一些。

Is location the secret to M on the Bund’s long lived success?

When we opened M on the Bund, the location actually went against it. There wasn’t any activity on the Bund at all; there was nothing. The general feeling in 1999 was that nobody would ever go to the Bund. People said, “Nobody sophisticated is going to go to the Bund for dinner, nobody!” The French Concession was the center of the city, and there was the Portman Hotel, the Garden Hotel, and the Hilton Hotel. The common idea was that anything you wanted to open had to be within 5 minutes of this triangle of hotels. It took an hour to get from the Portman Hotel to the Bund. The highway and metro didn’t extend to the Bund, so you had to drive through all of the traffic, and it was chaos. It took forever to get down there. 

So before we opened, a friend of mine said to me, “All those people who think that there is nothing outside that triangle do not understand that the central government’s plan is to build Shanghai and turn it into an international city, and the Bund will be in the middle. The whole focus of Shanghai is changing, but the development of the city is spreading, so the Bund will once again come back into some sort of play.” So, I had that idea in my head, but most people didn’t really know that. 

So, yes the location was important, but at the time the location went completely against it. I think I just listened to the information and sort of crossed my fingers and said a prayer that it would work. The whole Bund transformed while we were open, and we were the pioneers of a transformation of the Bund. We were very successful, and I think in many ways we were the right thing, at the right place, at the right time. Because we were easily accessible to an international community, the whole world started to look towards China, and we were the success story. What was really happening was this transformation of the city. And luckily, we were in the perfect spot to show that transformation.

M的成功秘诀是因为在外滩吗？

当我们在外滩进入M时，位置实际上与之相反。外滩根本没有任何活动；什么都没有。 1999年的普遍感觉是，没人会去外滩。人们说：“没有人会去外滩吃饭！” 法国租界是城市的中心，还有波特曼酒店，花园酒店和希尔顿酒店。普遍的想法是，您想开业的任何地方都必须在这家三角形酒店的5分钟内。从波特曼酒店到外滩花了一个小时。高速公路和地铁都不到外滩，所以您必须开车经过所有车辆，交通十分混乱。过去要花很久时间。

因此，我们开业前，我的一个朋友对我说：“所有认为除那三角形外没有东西的人都不知道中央政府的计划是把上海建设和转变成国际城市，外滩将在中间。上海的整体焦点正在发生变化，但城市的发展正在蔓延，因此外滩将再次恢复活力。”所以，我脑子里有了这个主意，但大多数人并不知道。

是的，位置非常重要，但是当时位置完全相反。我想我只是听了这些信息，然后交叉了手指并祈祷说那行得通。当我们开业时，整个外滩都发生了变化，我们是外滩改造的先驱。我们非常成功，我认为在很多方面，在正确的地点，正确的时间，我们都是在做正确的事情。由于国际社会很容易接近我们，所以全世界开始将目光投向中国，而我们就是成功的案例。所发生的就是城市的转变。我们很幸运地在最佳的地理位置显示这个转变。

Have you brought any uniquely Australian influences into your restaurant’s food, decor, or overall experience?

The two people who designed M on the Bund are Australian and worked for an Australian company when they first did it. What is Australian about it is the openness and not rigidity of design. You don’t have to follow any one path, and that’s what Australia is! It’s a melting pot with people of all cultures. It has a lot of influences. It’s big, and it’s open. When we first got the space, there was one small door and one small window onto the terrace. There was a wall, but now you walk in and it’s all glass. The main feature was the outside, not the inside, so the room had to feel comfortable, and light, and take your attention out rather than bring it in. Maybe if I had had American designers I would’ve had something similar, but I think if I used French or local designers, it would have looked completely different. I didn’t want it to be a rehash of 1930s Shanghai, and that was what everybody expected us to do. I wanted to do a modern, but elegant restaurant that felt comfortable, that referenced the glamorous past. That is what I wanted. 

您是否在餐厅的食物，装饰或整体体验中引入了独特的澳大利亚特色？

设计外滩M的是两个澳大利亚人，他们刚开始在一家澳大利亚公司工作。澳大利亚人对设计的看法是开放性而不是刚性。您不必遵循任何一条路径，这就是澳大利亚！这是一个融合了各种文化的人的大熔炉。它影响很多。它很大，而且是开放的。当我们第一次进入空间，露台上有一扇小门和一扇小窗户。有一堵墙，但是现在你走进去，实际上全是玻璃。该功能位于室外，而不是室内，因此房间必须舒适，光线充足，并要引起您的注意而不是将其引入。也许如果我有美国设计师，会有类似的效果，但是我想如果使用法国或当地设计师，那就看起来完全不同了。我不想让它成为1930年代上海的狂欢，那是每个人都希望我们做的。我想做一家现代，雅致，舒适并参考了辉煌过去的餐厅。那才是我想要的。

What lasting impact do you hope to create within Shanghai’s restaurant industry?

I think we have already had an enormous impact on international dining in China. Moving forward, I think the principles and ethics I have as a business owner for the restaurant industry are the sense of hospitality, and that you have to give back into the community, you can’t just take. You have to be responsible as a restauranteur for the supplier of goods, for the variety of the suppliers, for the produce that you buy. You have to be responsible for all of that; you can’t expect the customer to be responsible for that. All of my philosophy is that the most important thing about a restaurant is a sense of hospitality. At the end of the day, hospitality is about the people you work with. Therefore, people delivering the hospitality have to be people you are very comfortable working with, and also people who make customers feel comfortable. It’s a type of family.

Also, a completeness. A restaurant has to actually do all of the things at the level that it purports. You can’t just focus on the food and have terrible service, and you can’t just focus on design and not have good food. You have to have everything; you have to have a clean kitchen, a good supply chain, no matter if you’re doing a noodle shop or a high end restaurant. You need good food, a standard of cleanliness that cannot be questioned, good service to the best of your ability with friendly staff. The most important thing is that they’re friendly. You need to have comfortable surroundings, no matter how beautiful or simple they are, you need to have all of those things. And no single aspect alone can make a restaurant.

The restaurant industry is almost all white guys, even in Shanghai, so women have had to fight harder to make it. In such a sexist industry, I really hope that the other impact I’ve had is to show that as a single woman, without a husband, I have been able to run, manage, maintain, and have an enormous influence on the restaurant business in a big country. And I hope I’ve been a role model for women and for other people in restaurants that this is a holistic thing. And I hope all of those principles remain somewhere there. 

您希望对上海的餐饮业产生怎样的久远影响？

我认为我们已经对中国的国际餐饮业产生了巨大影响。展望未来，我认为我作为餐饮企业业主所持有的原则是热情好客。您必须回馈社会，而不能一味索取。作为一个餐厅老板，您必须对商品的供应商、对供应商的种类、对你所购买的产品负责。您必须对所有这些负责；您不能指望客户对此负责。我持有的理念就是热情好客。最终，热情好客是指同事之间能够互相关心，互相支持，然后一同来招待客人，就像一个大家庭。

其次，完整性。一家餐厅必须去做按照它宣传的水平的事情。您不能只专注于食物缺又提供糟糕的服务，也不能只专注于设计而不是美食。您必须两者兼具；无论您是在面条店还是高档餐厅，都必须拥有干净的厨房，良好的供应链。您需要优质的食物，无可争议的清洁标准，以及友善员工尽其所能提供的优质服务。最重要的是他们要很友善。您需要拥有舒适的环境，无论它们多么美丽或简单，都需要拥有所有这些东西。单独某个方面无法独自打造一家餐厅。

甚至在上海，餐饮业也几乎都是白人男子驾驭，所以女性需要更努力地精通此行业。在这样一个如此性别歧视的行业中，我真的希望我所产生的另外一个影响是，作为一个没有丈夫的单身女性，我能够在一个大国家来经营、管理、维护餐厅并对餐饮业有巨大影响。我希望我成为女性和餐厅里其他人的榜样，这是一个整体。我希望在这里保留我所有的原则。