Sushi chefs are the critical factor in the success of a sushi restaurant – “a shop with a chef who knows how to work the counter is a shop people will want to come back to”.
He (invariably a he) also needs to need to be skilled in a variety of on-the-job tasks – buying fish, preparing it, communicating with customers, chatting, sales, industry and skill-related knowledge, full-service, collecting payment.
Example: The (then) boss of Yamato (the door-to-door domestic delivery service pioneer) used the metaphor of the sushi chef when developing the concept of the ‘Sales Driver’ – the frontline of the delivery business.
Source: Ogura, M. (2004). Delivering the goods: Entrepreneurship and Innovation in a Japanese Company. Tokyo: The International House of Japan