All Blog Posts Tagged 'management' (131)

Non-Operator Restaurant Marketing: Do you know your customers?

Do you know your customers? No really; do you?

Often restaurateurs market to the wrong people instead of trying to target their message to their core customer base.

Again, who are your customers? Think about it, this is important for your marketing.

If you have a fast food place, your customers could be almost anybody (even Warren Buffet eats once in a while at McDonald's) but they all have some common expectations such as:

* They want a quick… Continue

Added by Jose L Riesco on January 14, 2009 at 8:05pm — No Comments

Non-Operator Staffing Questions 2009

In order to clarify your intentions, goals, and objectives when it comes to employee recruiting and retention in 2009, ask yourself these questions:

• How many new employees will I need to attract this year and how will I do it?

• How will I get more referrals for potential new employees?

• How many of our best employees who have left the organization will I try to re-recruit?

• What am I going to do to retain our best employees this year?

• What am I going to do to… Continue

Added by Mel Kleiman on January 7, 2009 at 9:54pm — 1 Comment

Mexican Restaurant Serves "Hilli-rellanos" and "Bar-Taco" Obama's?

During the hype of the campaign, I had such a blast re-naming some of our favorite dishes after the candidates, that it actually caught the attention of the media...who would of thought that taking my Chili Rellanos and naming them Hilli-rellano's ,would of excited the media enough to come to my restaurant to cover my restaurants political campaign?

It all began with a simple email blast asking my guests if they would vote for one of the following candidates....or as I wrote,… Continue

Added by Ben Martinez on January 6, 2009 at 10:03am — No Comments

Non-Operator 80/20 Rule Applied

Most of us are familiar with the 80/20 rule, or the Pareto Effect, as it is most commonly known. The 80/20 rule has been represented in business discussion as 80 percent of production comes from 20 percent of the producers for many years. More broadly the 80/20 rule has been applied to every imaginable situation in business with amazing accuracy. Reading this complex information is fairly heady stuff, not known for light content, however a little struggling makes it more understandable.… Continue

Added by Mark Frank on December 2, 2008 at 1:53pm — 4 Comments

Cost Containment versus Responsible Management

In this topsy turvy world of economic disasters and tragedies, I am noticing what can only be described as "pushing the panic button" happening more and more frequently. What I am referring to is this: in a season of the hospitality industry that is traditionally slow, in the wake of the media's proclaimation of economic doom, we are suddenly making decisions that could potentially harm our business for years to come. Changing the units operating hours, cutting back the staffing to bare… Continue

Added by Darnell R. Franze, Jr. on November 29, 2008 at 1:30pm — 1 Comment

Non-Operator Before you make that job offer answer this one question.

Just got off of the phone with someone with over 30 years of HR experience in the world of Convenience Retailing, we use to call this segment Convenience Stores. We were swapping some ideas when she said one of the questions she always ask manager when they hire someone "Is this someone you would be willing to take home for dinner?" If the answer is NO why would you hire them to take care of your customers?

I would like to change the question a little bit and ask. Would you be… Continue

Added by Mel Kleiman on November 20, 2008 at 9:04am — 1 Comment

Non-Operator Are you ready to be sued?

Now more than ever companies are going to need to have the right employment systems and people in place They are also going to need to be more careful then ever how they go about recruiting, hiring, managing and terminating those employees.

Frustration is on the rise, tempers are short and all types of employment lawsuits are increasing.

RSS FEED

Added by Mel Kleiman on November 13, 2008 at 11:42am — 11 Comments

The economy and you, part II

Last post we had asked clients about the economy and its effects on thier businesses. It seems that companies take one of three approaches, "adding services," "cutting costs," or "raising prices" so that is how I have broken down some of the quotes (we're sorry we can't print every comment).

Adding Service(s) or Lowering Prices/Production:

"Planning consumer events wherever possible."

"We noticed people have adjusted their comfort level about $10. We used to be… Continue

Added by Margie Tosch on October 25, 2008 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

Living and working in tough economic times, part I

Living and working in tough economic times, part I

Chinese Proverb: "May you live in interesting times"

These times seem so strange -- like nothing I remember before. I remember the energy crisis in the 70s, other times when the stock market dove, etc, but nothing quite like now. I was wandering around the plaza in Sonoma with my daughter, who was here visiting from outside Spokane, WA. It seemed every store we went in we overheard people saying things like "Oh, that's… Continue

Added by Margie Tosch on October 24, 2008 at 10:41am — 2 Comments

Non-Operator Are we really going to be 10,000,000 employees short in 2010

My answer to this question is NO.

Two main reasons.

1. We keep finding new ways to use technology to make the workforce more productive.

2.Baby Boomer are going to be in no hurry to retire.

What can the restaurant industry do to attract and retain this older generation of workers?

Last week there was a great article supported by some great research on the Staffing.Org… Continue

Added by Mel Kleiman on September 22, 2008 at 6:40am — 3 Comments

Cooking School Nights: Track Those Scraps

I’m pretty regimented about throwing waste in their proper receptacles, but after the garden experience, I went a step further and started tracking how much waste my actions during class was generating. To keep this at a minimum, instead of blindly slicing an entire onion for the carnitas we were making, I set a mise en place dish on my trusty little scale, tared it out and began tossing the slices into the dish until it got to 5 ounces. Done.

This couldn’t be simpler, and yet, it’s… Continue

Added by Amelia Levin on August 11, 2008 at 12:38pm — No Comments

Cooking School Nights: A Composting Story

Yesterday in my Mexican Cuisine class at Kendall, I got to school a little early so I went out the side door at the back of the first-floor kitchen and lingered around the herb garden for a bit. Maybe it was a result of the big storm the other day, but the plants were looking great-big and blooming. I picked some purple basil and the herbal smell was so strong it shot up through my nose before I even held it there. The tomatoes on their vines were still green, but… Continue

Added by Amelia Levin on August 11, 2008 at 12:34pm — No Comments

Loopholes in leadership

No matter where we work, we discuss leadership a lot — very understandable since it's an important facet of running our businesses. But let's take a step back and look around us. How many great leaders do we know? Some of us may know quite a few, while others may just shake their heads or shrug.

I say that for every good leader I know, there's one or more who doesn't live up to his or her promise. Incidentally, just as I was thinking about this, I received a very timely… Continue

Added by restaurantdotorg on August 4, 2008 at 7:28am — 5 Comments

Appell Pie Look Around

Look Around

I think we all are feeling the pinch by now from the economic downturn. I truly believe that those of us who can think outside of the box or just go with the flow rather than fighting it will survive and grow when it turns around. Stop wringing your hands and crying over how bad business is or could get in the coming months. Get smart and strong now to be successful later. Don’t be fooled into all the gloom and doom. People make fortunes in economic downturns and you can… Continue

Added by Howard Appell on June 18, 2008 at 7:00am — No Comments

What is DIVERSITY and Why Should I Care?

By Gregg Ward, CMC

Workshop Presenter at CHART Conference: August 10, 2008

A few months ago, I was sitting at a swanky professional association dinner in a nice hotel in San Diego chatting with a corporate attorney, a chief financial officer and a number of other corporate officers - all white people - when one of them asked me what I do. I replied "I'm a diversity expert." Blank faces...none of them, not one, knew what I meant.

To be honest, I'm pretty used to that… Continue

Added by Gregg Ward, CMC on June 10, 2008 at 4:45pm — 4 Comments

Group Dynamics In Kitchens

I am having a hard time. A lot of people I know are having a similarly hard time and so maybe it's time to be having a hard time. I am trying to see and understand where I fit and don't appear to fit in my job, the kitchen, among cooks, with chefs, in the industry as a whole, and all the invisible crevices in which ickinesses take up residence if we're not careful.

I attempt to be as honest with my weaknesses as I can, without creating a ladder from which to climb over the bridge on.… Continue

Added by Shuna fish Lydon on June 6, 2008 at 12:01am — 3 Comments

Non-Operator How to teach in 10 easy steps

One of the primary reasons that some businesses training programs work, and some don't, is in the method their managers and trainers use to teach new skills. This seems to be especially true in restaurants and food services, due to the prevelance of leaders without formal educations. Sorry if that offends anyone, but it's true.

While proper teaching technique is not something that comes naturally to everyone, it is easy to learn following a simple multi-step… Continue

Added by Brandon O'Dell on June 4, 2008 at 7:30pm — 2 Comments

RUTHLESS MANAGEMENT & MARKETING

I just got off the phone listening to Dan Kennedy, the famous marketer who has continuously had a business book on most booksellers’ shelves for the last seventeen years. His newest one is titled Ruthless Management of People and Profits.

He was asked in the interview why he used the word ‘ruthless’ since it’s so harsh. His response was that you must learn how to ruthlessly manage not just your business, but yourself too.

For instance, most business owners complain about… Continue

Added by Roy MacNaughton on June 3, 2008 at 5:34pm — 2 Comments

Non-Operator Diane Cohn Joins FohBoh, Inc. as VP Community Development

FohBoh is thrilled to announce that it has hired Diane Cohn as VP Community Development starting April 1, 2008. Diane brings her passion for and experience with community management, having worked successfully at Apple managing its worldwide user group community. Last year she was one of Reno, Nevada's top producing Realtors®, and is one of the country's most recognized and prolific real estate bloggers (see her… Continue

Added by FohBoh on March 28, 2008 at 8:37pm — 14 Comments

4 stepsof leadership growth

this is from a book i read by john c. maxwell, it shows that not everyone is a natural born leader and just like most things in life in order to get good at something you have to practice and know your strengths and weaknesses in what you are trying to improve.

step 1 I don't know what i don't know.

its simple...as long as a person doesn't know…

Continue

Added by ethan seiden on February 17, 2008 at 12:18am — 4 Comments