There are plenty of fish in the sea, but there are only a handful of salons across the United States that make it into the Salon Today Top 200? Though every salon is different and unique, only 200 salons can be chosen for this distinction. Salon Today is a company that was created for salon & spa owners and managers by an elite team of editors who have been leading the conversation of salon business for more than 25 years. Their expert team decides who makes it into the circle of the Top 200.
Gordon Salon has the honor and prestige to not only be an intercoiffure salon but also Salon Today’s Top 200 for 18 years. Normally Salon Today would typically be examining sales for the calendar year 2020 for the following year's competition. There was a more extensive process due to the pandemic. There was dip economically with salons as a whole, so, the editors on the Salon Today had asked salon owners to provide two separate essays focusing on Recovery and Rebuilding.
Below are a few snippets of what Tony and Pam Gordon wrote:
“Starting in 2020 and continuing into 2021 Gordon Salon adopted the concept of “MOONSHOT” thinking. We read the book “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr. “How Google, Bono and the Gates Foundation rock the world with OKRS”. A story about Intel, Google and other big companies that started using a concept called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). These OKRs were trajectory changing goals that are big and bold, where many of these types of goals are prone to fail, we have consistently pulled ours through and continue to do so. One employee said, “Shoot for the moon, if you fall, you’ll land on the clouds.” This is our guiding approach we are taking on Moonshot thinking.
At Gordon Salon, we decided to implement quarterly OKRS in mid-2020. One OKR we focused on was swapping our POS software system, another was opening a new location. But the one that created the most mental and psychological shifts was something we call “Ultimate Teams.” We had a problem in one location where after years of effort, two senior stylists could not get along. We theorized that an outside force would allow the two to find common ground by working together in an effort to fight off an adversary. We figured a contest against an opposing force would drive these two people together that loved the company, but disliked each other. Much like American political parties that are always bickering, when they are threatened by an outside force they eventually cross the isle and come together in the end.
Ultimate Teams pitted each of the four salons against each other like a small sports league. We thought this would create adequate pressure to forge unity between disparate individuals. All methods of scoring were based on the needs of the company. Each Salon picked a team name, uniform, motto, mascot, theme song, and created a scoreboard. The sports league analogy followed through to the scoring. During Fall of 2020 we used football as the prime example for tallying our numbers. 6 points for a touchdown, when the whole team had high productivity, 3 points for great prebook numbers, 1 point for an Instagram post, and they continued from there.
Over many years the Gordon salons have been innovating. The Salon Today Top 200 awards emphasized that in their decision process. From the first entry in 2001 we wanted to get recognized for our innovation and how that creativity manifested itself in growth. Although criteria has changed many times over the 18 years and what we have won for has changed. Most of the time it was financial/gross volume change from year to year. Since it was a covid year, this year's contest was a required essay about how the salon came back from and fared during the pandemic. Tony.”
There you have it! Gordon Salon strives to be a cut above the rest with innovation, passion, and of course technical skill. Congrats to everyone on the team at Gordon Salon, behind the scenes & behind the chair!
Lexa xoxo