Transactional Arbitrage The Five Bets Underneath Most Restaurants
Five levers, five closing gaps, and the model that doesn’t depend on either. Most operators don’t know they’re…
You Didnt Buy a Business Partner You Bought a Dependency
Four consecutive quarters of same-store sales declines. The most recent at negative 8.7%. A 22-year streak of comp…
The Casual FullService Problem Isnt the Food
Walk into any casual full-service chain and count the friction points before you’ve ordered your first drink. The…
Do You Have Crabs
You’ve seen crabs in a bucket. Just when one gets close to the edge, the others grab hold…
WHT The Ultimate In Transactional Thinking
Domino’s Pizza built a system for handling customer complaints that requires no human contact. An order arrives late…
The Case Against Behavioral Interviews
There is a hiring practice so deeply embedded in corporate America that questioning it gets you looked at…
The Lost Opportunity Tax
It does not appear on the P&L. No accountant will flag it. No audit will surface it. No…
Loyalty Programs Dont Build Loyalty
The word loyalty has been hijacked. In the restaurant industry it has been redefined to mean a discount…
Bad Employees Or Bad Leadership
I have never believed in bad employees. I believe in bad hiring processes. Bad training systems. Bad performance…
The Problem With Employee Contests
After four decades in this business, one contradiction still amazes me: operators say they want teamwork and collaboration,…