The Legacy of LEO: Lessons Learned from an English Tea and Cake Company's Pioneering Efforts in Information Systems

LEO is the acronym for the Lyons Electronic Office, a business-oriented computer system created by J. Lyons & Co. Ltd. Founded in 1887, the company’s teashops had become a British institution. It was a family owned and run organization in the catering, tea-and-cake shop, bakery, ice-cream and restaurant businesses. As such it was an unlikely enterprise to undertake such a far-reaching innovation. The company was better known for its Red and Green Label tea, foil-wrapped Kup Kakes, Lyons Maid ice cream and, of course, its exceedingly popular “nippies,” those speedy, efficient waitresses adorned in black blouses and starched white aprons who provided stellar service in its over 250 teashops. Lyons’ restaurants set standards of “service to customers” and “sumptuousness of surroundings that astonished and delighted

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