Survival Skills from Chef David Chang

There is no doubt about it, Chef David Chang is kicking some serious food butt, while simultaneously, offering a survival tactic for the rest of America’s entrepreneurs.

The 32 year old NYC chef, entrepreneur, and czar of the Momofuku restaurant dynasty has carved out his spot in the New York restaurant scene through sheer entrepreneurial grit and a relentless push towards culinary innovation. His unmatched style, combining Asian and American ingredients with French technique, has moved him into the restaurant big leagues, but it’s his off-the-wall innovations and creativity that are launching him into the culinary stratosphere. Innovations that include cereal-flavored milk ice cream, caviar stuffed hen eggs, and pork belly buns are game changing dishes and are attracting NYC foodies in herds.

But Chefs like David Chang are doing more than drive reservations, they are teaching American entrepreneurs the two essential survival skills for the economy of the future – creativity and design.

In an industry that sees very little advances in technology, touts high failure rates, and rests atop a mature growth plateau with deep market saturation, restaurateurs like Chang illicit superior artistic creativity and design to change the economics of the restaurant industry and drive demand for an abundant ubiquitous commodity. . . food.

Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind argues that artistic creativity and design are necessities in a future global economy:

Design is a high-concept aptitude that is difficult to outsource or automate – and that increasingly confers a competitive advantage in business.
- Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

The way chefs call upon artistic inspiration as differentiation in the restaurant market, so will entrepreneurs in flat world economy – through a marriage of radical creativity and design with fundamental business. Competing on price, quality, and speed-to-market are no longer going to cut it.

In the digital age of ubiquitous quality, low price, and abundant availability, it will be design oriented creators, like Chang, who will rise to the top and meet the demands of global consumers.