Nation's Restaurant News - November 2, 2009

Stay in business with smart, tough strategies

There’s a story that motivational speakers like to tell: Two hikers are on a backcoun-try trail. They stop to rest. Hearing a rustling in the bushes, they crane for a better view and see two bear cubs playing near a stream. They watch the cubs for awhile, bemused. One of the men wheels around, freezes in terror and jabs his buddy in the ribs.

“Look up there” he rasps. “It’s the mama grizzly bear, and we just walked between her and her cubs. What are we going to do?”

Before either man has time to react, the mama charges downhill at breakneck speed toward them. The terrified guy stands motionless and panic-stricken. His companion quickly tears off his hiking boots, digs into his backpack, pulls out a pair of tennis shoes, and quickly laces them up. His buddy is stunned. “There’s no way you’re going to outrun that mama grizzly!” he cries. “I don’t have to outrun her,” his companion responds. “I only have to outrun you!”

The moral of the story is clear: think ahead, stay ahead of the competition, and let circumstances beyond your control af-

JIM SULLIVAN

fect the unprepared. The mama grizzly may be an appropriate parable for the current economy and the action we need to take. What are you doing in today’s recession to be ready for tomorrow’s upturn?

Not that we’re out of the woods by any measure. Grocery prices are falling and restaurant prices rising. Technomic recently reported that in the past three years 21,425 units have closed in the United States, and 84 percent of those were full-service operations. That reflects the worst three-year contraction in foodservice history. Some 8 mil-lion-plus people are unemployed today that weren’t a year ago, and that has affected

■ Stiffen your resolve and
begin now to enact smart
strategies to insure you’re
running when the upturn
finally comes.

commuter traffic and breakfast business. I shudder to think of its impact on foodservice relative to consumer confidence, employment and discretionary spending. So you have a choice: either whistle past the graveyard and hope you’re not next, or stiffen your resolve and begin now to enact smart strate-

gies to insure you’re running when the upturn comes. Here are a few lessons in leadership to help you get ready to pounce.

1. What do you want to be famous for? Harvard professor Michael Porter argues that a company doesn’t really have a winning marketing strategy if it does the same things as its competitors, only a little better. A company has a robust strategy when it has strong points of difference from competitor’s strategies. “It’s not enough to be pretty good at everything,” said speaker Bill Taylor at the recent Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators confab in Dallas. “You have to be really good at something. What are you the ‘most of’ to your customers?” If you’re unsure what the answer is, Taylor suggests asking the question: “If you went out of business tomorrow, would anyone really miss you and why?” Give more “why” now.

2. Action is great. Unless it’s the wrong action. Assess your systems and processes in key result areas like costs, throughput, service, hiring, training and marketing. Know which actions within each system still truly serve to move you forward and which ones are no longer effective. Determine which changes you’ve made in the downturn that deserve to be permanent and which ones need to be retired or reconsidered when the upturn comes.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 39

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES
SHOW SIGNS OF SLOWING

WASHINGTON — Unemployment rates continued to rise in September, but the rate of increase appears to be slowing somewhat, the

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in late October.

Jobless rates increased in 23 states and the District of Columbia, with

Nevada and Rhode Island reporting record highs, while 19 states reported decreases in unemployment numbers from August to September, and eight saw no change.

The national unemployment rate rose to 9. 8 percent in September, up slightly from 9. 7 percent in August, the BLS said.

In addition, nonfarm payroll employment decreased in 43 states and the District of Columbia during September, with the largest month-over-month decreases seen in New York, which was down by 81,700 jobs; Texas, down 44,700 jobs; and California, down 39,300 jobs.

Over the year, nonfarm employment has decreased the most in Arizona and Michigan, falling 7. 5 percent in both states, and also in Nevada and Oregon, where nonfarm employment has fallen 6. 1 percent.

Michigan reported the highest unemployment rate in September of 15. 3 percent, followed by Nevada at 13. 3 percent, Rhode Island at 13 percent, and California at 12. 2 percent.

Kramer: Industry benefits
by supporting the disabled

In New York at the U.S. Open this year, about 59 of the foodservice staffers hired by concessionaire Levy Restaurants were trained by

YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities. Based in New York, YAI is an organization that trains developmentally disabled workers for a number of industries, including foodservice, and helps them find jobs. The organization now serves about 20,000 individuals with disabilities and their families in the New York metropolitan area.

Restaurant employers that have hired YAI graduates include quick-service chains such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Burger King, as well as full-service operators. YAI senior director, Michael Kramer, spoke with NRN.

offer a lot of seasonal work. We have two foodservice environments that are repeat customers for us for 11 years: the food village at the U.S. Open run by Levy Restaurants and Aramark foodservice operations during baseball season at Citi Field in New York.

We have people who have worked in high-end restaurants doing prep work and busing. Danny Meyer [of Union Square Hospitality Group] has used our folks at the Shake Shack.

The foodservice industry across the country is a supportive one for hiring people with disabilities, but there are so many more opportunities within it, if people will look.

Michael Kramer

ments have dropped about 50 percent across all industries.

What are the advantages of hiring a YAI trainee? There are two. First, some employers might be a little resistant or hesitant to hire someone with a disability because they might think it would be a deterrent for customers. But actually, communities tend to see it as a benefit. They see that employers are supporting all individuals in a community and that the employer is giving back. Secondly, I think the most relevant issue is that our graduates are confident, dedicated, loyal and hardworking.

Who do you serve?

We serve people with autism, developmental or intellectual disabilities, and learning disabilities.

Is the restaurant industry a good choice for your graduates?

Restaurants are a popular choice because the industry tends to

How has the economy affected your placement rate? When the economy first took a downturn, we had graduates interviewing for food prep positions who were going up against Culinary Institute of America graduates. In the last six months, place-