FT: Early morning brigade brings home the bacon

Early morning brigade brings home the bacon

By Rhymer Rigby

Published: March 25 2008 02:00 | Last updated: March 25 2008 02:00

Almost no one has time for leisurely business lunches nowadays, says Yvonne Ike, an executive director at JPMorgan - which is why she is a "big fan" of the business breakfast. A quick lunch is often rushed and forced but a short breakfast feels relaxed and natural. "Breakfast hardly ever goes on for more than an hour and people usually get straight to the point," she says.

The business lunch - in its traditional, boozy, all-afternoon sense - has long been in decline. First went the alcoholic excess; then, with the advent of quick lunches, the third and even the second courses; now a sandwich in Starbucks can qualify as a business lunch. And, even in its stripped down form, many executives don't like to take a big chunk out of their schedule. Small wonder that many are choosing to meet and eat before they get to the office.

Sarah Gold, managing partner of CHI, an advertising agency, also prefers to do deals over coffee and croissants. "Lunches take up too much time - two hours minimum with travel - and while I like business dinners, they really do encroach on your personal life," she says.

Ms Gold, who has up to three breakfast meetings a week, says the advantages are not only to do with saving time: "It is also considerably cheaper. If you go for lunch, you'll barely get change from £100, whereas with breakfast it will be more like £30. They also just feel more part of the modern working world."

The power breakfast, in combining elements of puritanism and the competitive work ethic, has always held a powerful appeal in the US. Well-known practitioners include New York's Regency Hotel and the Bel-Air in Los Angeles.

But fashionable restaurants elsewhere are not far behind. In London, the Wolseley, the Cinnamon Club, Raoul's and Automat all cater to the early-morning business brigade. In Tokyo, the Imperial and the French Kitchen at the Grand Hyatt play host to the city's dealmakers.

Jeremy King, co-founder of the Wolseley restaurant in London's Piccadilly, says: "Lunch often has a lot of obligatory socialising attached. You see groups of men talking about anything but work for two hours and then cramming all the business into the last 10 minutes. But breakfast focuses the mind. We're even seeing people doing two or three breakfast meetings in a row."

Hotels are also reporting a breakfast boom. Claridge's says queues for breakfast often stretch out of the restaurant door: "In the past few years, it seems to have really grown. A lot of it is [down to] non-residents and it's very much a suited and booted clientèle."

Much of the growth in popularity of breakfast is down to longer working hours and shorter breaks. But Carole Stone, author of Networking: The Art of Making Friends , says there are other reasons. "It is usually much easier to get a table for breakfast and people who might say no to lunch for time reasons are happy to make breakfast. It is also much easier to have on your premises than lunch."

Ms Stone adds that although some may see business breakfasts as yet another workplace intrusion into home time, the reverse may be the case. If you get your meeting out of the way before the start of the day, by getting up 45 minutes earlier you can often leave work earlier. Doing business over breakfast makes a good impression and puts you at your desk at 9.30 with a sense of achievement under your belt.

The working breakfast's other great benefit is its relative informality. Even today's pared-down lunches can be involve a series of etiquette hurdles. Does a glass of wine say you are not serious about business? Should you have a starter? A pudding? Bottled or tap water? And at what point can you politely leave? With breakfast these worries fall by the wayside. At the first meal of the day, it is perfectly acceptable for one person to have a "full English" with three coffees while another has a meagre bowl of fruit without the two diners feeling awkward.

Ms Gold says a final reason breakfasts are better is to do with cultural change. In a fitness-conscious and more feminine workplace, "a lot of women prefer breakfasts. You feel as if you can be a lot more indulgent over them."

She adds, however, that her idea of indulgence may differ from those of many businesswomen: "I'm a northern lass, so one of the reasons I like them is because I love kippers."

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

Comments

[Tim Howe]

The idea is good in principle, but what about the "morgenmuffel", as they call them here in Germany?
Those of us non-morning people who simply perform better later on in the day?
Also, there's nothing so social as a nice glass of wine after a midday meal - particularly after sealing a deal. Coffee's just no substitute!