Archeological benchmarking: Fred Harvey and the service profit chain, Circa 1876

This article illustrates the potential for studying best practices from the past, engaging in what we term archeological benchmarking. Our focus for this study was the Fred Harvey Company, which operated a highly successful string of restaurants and hotels along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad line starting in 1876, reaching its peak around 1912, and continuing until the early 1950s. Fred Harvey was a visionary businessman who understood many of the key concepts guiding the most successful service operations today. This article describes the operating system Harvey used for delivering 15 million meals per year in 65 restaurants extending over a span reaching from Chicago to San Francisco. The underpinnings of Harvey's system foretold concepts considered new today, particularly the service profit chain [Heskett, J., Jones, T., Loveman, G., Sasser Jr., W.E., Schlesinger, L., 1994] and its reliance on a clear operations strategy supported by well-trained, loyal employees and a congruent system of measurement. It is significant that Harvey achieved his success without the advantages of modern information systems by relying, instead, on his iconic leadership, dogged attention to mundane details, and the service culture he was able to embed throughout the far-flung enterprise. The Harvey story is an example of ahead-of-its-time operations thinking, but it also asks us to attend more broadly to the history of the field – as does this entire special issue – as a source of inspiration and grounding.