Saturday, July 31, 2010
Managing Creative Types can be Difficult
I have been blessed as well as cursed for many things. I think one of my most treasured blessing has got to be my young spirited, ever wondering creativity. It has taken through childhood art classes, teen age work as a local paper cartoonist, editorial illustrator for a college newspaper, having the best college biology drawing book and free lance work as signs & graphics. But all of this has really came together in my work as a chef. I mean the ability to envision something and put it together. But with any great gift comes a price, even a cursing. I am creative, but bore easily.
I love to be in control but not controlling. I respect my superiors but do
not feel inferior. Money really never came into the picture unless it was an issue. And I freely with deliver successful results after results and will do so on my own initiative. I am richly rewarded when my staff is appreciated and thanked and I feel comfortable in the job. I really can do without the praise. I like to find the kinks, get in and fix it.
I think alot people may think they are creative but I think the truly creative ones are easily missed and dismissed by the general public because they don't know how to recognize and more importantly work with a creative spirit. Many with see a creative person maybe as a rebel or indifferent. They may even see my type as rude and downright disrespectful. I mean we tend to lay it out-straight forward and honest as possible. I always maintained that at least during work for that period I will do my job with a halo. After work, to each his own. So I have no problem recognizing bull@#!* in other people and will point it out.
That is probably why not too many creative types zoom to the top in business. It seems that as you head to the top, it resembles a pyramid and mirrors the depth and width of people as well. Lots of people at the top but 1 thick and 1 wide because they are usually all the same. That is fine in many respects. The Company, the team, the mission all has to be on the same page. But I am sure no forward thinking, self starting CEO would want his executive team to be a clone cookie cut outs. He wants to hear, see some opinion, thought and indifferences. Obama said it best during his campaign, "We can all agree to disagree".
I love to be in control but not controlling. I respect my superiors but do
not feel inferior. Money really never came into the picture unless it was an issue. And I freely with deliver successful results after results and will do so on my own initiative. I am richly rewarded when my staff is appreciated and thanked and I feel comfortable in the job. I really can do without the praise. I like to find the kinks, get in and fix it.
I think alot people may think they are creative but I think the truly creative ones are easily missed and dismissed by the general public because they don't know how to recognize and more importantly work with a creative spirit. Many with see a creative person maybe as a rebel or indifferent. They may even see my type as rude and downright disrespectful. I mean we tend to lay it out-straight forward and honest as possible. I always maintained that at least during work for that period I will do my job with a halo. After work, to each his own. So I have no problem recognizing bull@#!* in other people and will point it out.
That is probably why not too many creative types zoom to the top in business. It seems that as you head to the top, it resembles a pyramid and mirrors the depth and width of people as well. Lots of people at the top but 1 thick and 1 wide because they are usually all the same. That is fine in many respects. The Company, the team, the mission all has to be on the same page. But I am sure no forward thinking, self starting CEO would want his executive team to be a clone cookie cut outs. He wants to hear, see some opinion, thought and indifferences. Obama said it best during his campaign, "We can all agree to disagree".
Thursday, July 1, 2010
What is the 'Restaurant in a Briefcase'?
I termed a belief long ago that if I was open up a restaurant of my own or for someone else or even a company from scratch to a fully operational, profitable business; that I would need to have the entire business concept fit literally in a briefcase.
Too many people run with something, open up a restaurant and play hit and miss thinking eventually they will get it right. I guess some will and most will go out of business not knowing why they have failed. So lets back up and see just what is packed in our briefcase.
The Briefcase
1. Business Plan: Basic of the basics.
2. Business Statement: Just who are you and what do you do? Really define this one well. Everyone has to buy off on it.
3. Mission Statemen: What purpose do you serve and how do plan to do it.
This is the most single way to prevent heartache between leader by making
sure are really aboard with this one. Every step forward is wasted if we
all leave from different starting points and head to different destination points.
4. Menu Engineering. This is the tough one where everyone thinks they got the right secret.
-Basic components are a core menu that represents the niche of the market that you intend to capture. Keep in mind demographics, location, local
market, existing concepts, and long term feasibility of the concept. Also how adaptable will your concept be. Fine dining sounds great but is that really a money maker now, in this area, at this time? Maybe the crowd wants it relatively just delicious, cheap and fast. Ok, so you go with that one but include a few products and brands that can entice finer taste and yet go in sync with the core menu.
-Product Branding. This is most crucial when running a restaurant. Having solid, consistent product that can be defined down to the source, manufacturer is crucial. Take a simple steak. Are we running Angus steaks out of Kansas, grain fed, aged, sized, and portioned. Are we just ordering a steak at whatever price we can get it. This is so important that larger firms have gone to the extent of even owning their own processing plants to insure exact product branding. Some steak houses even have their own ranches just to be sure they are delivering the beef they want. Control from nuturing calves up to the slaughter houses to distribution and eventually merchandising. All this for one single product.
-Ingredients. This is even more mind boggling. If product standarization is so crucial, how about all the ingredients that might make up a certain product. You write a recipe for specialty BBQ sauce and it includes 20 plus ingredients. Are the tomatoes always from the same rancher in Mexico that grows it the same way, with the same fertilizer, the same care to insure the same flavor, color, and texture. Trying to monitor this is probably next to impossible, but it is done and it is possible. Maybe your ingredients call for items prepared such as 'Tabasco' 'Heinz Ketchup'
'Lea & Perrins Worchestershire Sauce' and you hope they they don't change a single thing otherwise it will affect your end product. We call this a flavor profile. Everything is controlled to obtain the exact flavor you want. Not only are you watching your end, but your ingredient makers have to watch their end, and the supplier to them likewise, and so on and so on. This is why certain marketed trademark brands used to make commercial recipes such as the products mentioned above have never, never, never altered a single thing in their recipes over the last 25 years. Tabasco has tasted the same since I was a kid. Maybe new flavors but it is the same. Take Coca Cola for example, same taste after nearly a century. It is used as the base in recipes such as Cola BBQ Sauce.
-Redundancy. Build the menu around items readily available, easily controlled, easy to obtain throughout the year. I once had an owner who wanted to market specifically a exotic pear salad. Great dish when the season was right. Otherwise it was hard to get the product and if we did, it literally cost more to buy it wholesale than we could sell it for. So we came up with a couple of solutions, renaming the salad 'Seasonal Fruit Salad' and taking advantage of the pear in season and rolling with the best option in off season. We tried omitting the price and using the catch all, cover all phrase 'At Market Prices' but that kind of turns people off thinking they are getting overcharged. Making the menu specific but non specific is an art.
Too many people run with something, open up a restaurant and play hit and miss thinking eventually they will get it right. I guess some will and most will go out of business not knowing why they have failed. So lets back up and see just what is packed in our briefcase.
The Briefcase
1. Business Plan: Basic of the basics.
2. Business Statement: Just who are you and what do you do? Really define this one well. Everyone has to buy off on it.
3. Mission Statemen: What purpose do you serve and how do plan to do it.
This is the most single way to prevent heartache between leader by making
sure are really aboard with this one. Every step forward is wasted if we
all leave from different starting points and head to different destination points.
4. Menu Engineering. This is the tough one where everyone thinks they got the right secret.
-Basic components are a core menu that represents the niche of the market that you intend to capture. Keep in mind demographics, location, local
market, existing concepts, and long term feasibility of the concept. Also how adaptable will your concept be. Fine dining sounds great but is that really a money maker now, in this area, at this time? Maybe the crowd wants it relatively just delicious, cheap and fast. Ok, so you go with that one but include a few products and brands that can entice finer taste and yet go in sync with the core menu.
-Product Branding. This is most crucial when running a restaurant. Having solid, consistent product that can be defined down to the source, manufacturer is crucial. Take a simple steak. Are we running Angus steaks out of Kansas, grain fed, aged, sized, and portioned. Are we just ordering a steak at whatever price we can get it. This is so important that larger firms have gone to the extent of even owning their own processing plants to insure exact product branding. Some steak houses even have their own ranches just to be sure they are delivering the beef they want. Control from nuturing calves up to the slaughter houses to distribution and eventually merchandising. All this for one single product.
-Ingredients. This is even more mind boggling. If product standarization is so crucial, how about all the ingredients that might make up a certain product. You write a recipe for specialty BBQ sauce and it includes 20 plus ingredients. Are the tomatoes always from the same rancher in Mexico that grows it the same way, with the same fertilizer, the same care to insure the same flavor, color, and texture. Trying to monitor this is probably next to impossible, but it is done and it is possible. Maybe your ingredients call for items prepared such as 'Tabasco' 'Heinz Ketchup'
'Lea & Perrins Worchestershire Sauce' and you hope they they don't change a single thing otherwise it will affect your end product. We call this a flavor profile. Everything is controlled to obtain the exact flavor you want. Not only are you watching your end, but your ingredient makers have to watch their end, and the supplier to them likewise, and so on and so on. This is why certain marketed trademark brands used to make commercial recipes such as the products mentioned above have never, never, never altered a single thing in their recipes over the last 25 years. Tabasco has tasted the same since I was a kid. Maybe new flavors but it is the same. Take Coca Cola for example, same taste after nearly a century. It is used as the base in recipes such as Cola BBQ Sauce.
-Redundancy. Build the menu around items readily available, easily controlled, easy to obtain throughout the year. I once had an owner who wanted to market specifically a exotic pear salad. Great dish when the season was right. Otherwise it was hard to get the product and if we did, it literally cost more to buy it wholesale than we could sell it for. So we came up with a couple of solutions, renaming the salad 'Seasonal Fruit Salad' and taking advantage of the pear in season and rolling with the best option in off season. We tried omitting the price and using the catch all, cover all phrase 'At Market Prices' but that kind of turns people off thinking they are getting overcharged. Making the menu specific but non specific is an art.
The grass is always greener on the other side...Not!
So many times, I believe, we tend to think 'they' got it right or 'they' are doing it correct, ect. ect. Well, nothing wrong with being open to
new ideas, suggestions and all. Sometimes we look so hard outwards that
we can't see the nose on our own faces. Where am I going with this?
This where: You want a good operation, then you run a good operation.
Simple. Done. Don't make it too hard. No amounts of books, logs, records, files, cross indexes, software, and rabbits out of the hat are going to
replace skilled managed leadership. All of these tools are just that, tools to assist one in the effective managing of an establishment. Make no doubt about that. I have worked in many companies. One such was so anal retentive to have a book policy on every thing dreamable in the food business. These books literally costs hundreds of thousands to maintain, distribute, update, and eventually have go to wasted, yellowed trash.
And almost always they were headed up by people who had no idea about the food business. Now I believe firmly in established standards, procedures and all else to format a successful concept. There is a happy harmony between fly on the hip management and training, literature doctrine. Both work together. So now what we see in modern successful food establishments is not the clutter of needless paper work but the collaboration of operational programs. Food Safety program, Work Safety program, New hire training program, food cost analysis, food specifications, menu design and concept, product branding and standarization, ect. ect. These are most concrete, tangible training
tools than philosophical garbage. I had a boss who once said, "Paperwork is something you do when you're not making money". Think about it.
So we define the Mission Statement, Business Statement and the main objective of our very existence. We then write, train and work everything into this.
new ideas, suggestions and all. Sometimes we look so hard outwards that
we can't see the nose on our own faces. Where am I going with this?
This where: You want a good operation, then you run a good operation.
Simple. Done. Don't make it too hard. No amounts of books, logs, records, files, cross indexes, software, and rabbits out of the hat are going to
replace skilled managed leadership. All of these tools are just that, tools to assist one in the effective managing of an establishment. Make no doubt about that. I have worked in many companies. One such was so anal retentive to have a book policy on every thing dreamable in the food business. These books literally costs hundreds of thousands to maintain, distribute, update, and eventually have go to wasted, yellowed trash.
And almost always they were headed up by people who had no idea about the food business. Now I believe firmly in established standards, procedures and all else to format a successful concept. There is a happy harmony between fly on the hip management and training, literature doctrine. Both work together. So now what we see in modern successful food establishments is not the clutter of needless paper work but the collaboration of operational programs. Food Safety program, Work Safety program, New hire training program, food cost analysis, food specifications, menu design and concept, product branding and standarization, ect. ect. These are most concrete, tangible training
tools than philosophical garbage. I had a boss who once said, "Paperwork is something you do when you're not making money". Think about it.
So we define the Mission Statement, Business Statement and the main objective of our very existence. We then write, train and work everything into this.
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