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Restaurants don’t win on food alone, they win on feel. Radu Dumitrescu, founder & CEO of Stadio Hospitality Concepts, lays out a leadership philosophy built on culture, principles, and a relentless focus on the guest experience. A lifelong entrepreneur who started his first business at 18 and later sold a major printing operation, he entered hospitality almost accidentally. Then scaled to ~10 a la carte restaurants and 440 employees. His core idea: people don’t go out to “eat,” they go out to experience, and that experience is an equal balance of design, product, price, and service. Internally, he runs the company like a long game: promote from within, prioritize behavioral standards over pure technical skill, and build culture through consistent everyday actions, especially when nobody is watching. He also challenges the myth of “work-life balance” as a neat formula, arguing it’s all just life and the balance shifts with seasons. Inspired by Harvard Business School’s OPM cases and books like Principles, he’s codifying what made the company work via “Project Clarity” - documenting culture, roles, processes, and teams to scale to the next stage and improve guest experience.

Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation:

1. Experience beats cuisine. Food matters, but the “why” of dining out is the full emotional package.
2. The 4-part experience model: design + product + price + service. Each must pull its weight.
3. Culture is behavior, repeated. It’s built daily, including when no one is watching.
4. Authenticity is operational. “Do what you say” isn’t branding. It’s leadership hygiene.
5. Hire and promote for attitude first. His “51–49” lens favors emotional/behavioral fit over pure technical skill.
6. Retention is a strategy. Low turnover comes from care, stability, and real support beyond payroll.
7. Structure reduces chaos. A big team isn’t inherently chaotic if roles and growth paths are clear.
8. Over-planning can kill momentum. Early “guts” matter; details come after movement starts.
9. Work-life balance isn’t a spreadsheet. Entrepreneurship runs in waves. Learn to self-regulate, not time-box.
10. Codify to scale. “Project Clarity” (culture, roles, processes, teams) turns tribal knowledge into repeatable execution.

 Books: 

1. Principles
2. Good to Great
3. Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0
4. Zero to One