This is part of NRN’s special coverage of the 2011 Multi-Unit Foodservice Operator conference, or MUFSO. The conference is taking place Sept. 25-27 at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, Texas. Follow all coverage on NRN’s ‘At the Show’ section, check out NRN blogs, Reporter’s Notebook, and Tweet with us using #MUFSO.
After several years of recession-fueled retrenchment, MUFSO attendees were focused on the future and a return to growth as they posed questions to top chief executives in the industry Tuesday at MUFSO.
The answers did not disappoint, as NRN award winners covered expansion strategies -- and pitfalls to avoid -- as well as hot-button issues like health care reform.
Panelists for one of the final sessions at the conference, and typically the most popular, included Golden Chain award winners J. Patrick Doyle, Domino’s chief executive; Don Fox, Firehouse of America chief executive; Steele Platt, The Yard House founder and chairman; and Steve Romaniello, Focus Brands chairman, as well as Ron Shaich, Panera Bread executive chairman and Pioneer Award honoree; and Phil Hickey, O’Charley’s chairman and Norman Award honoree. The panel discussion was sponsored by American Express.
Grow with caution
Shaich, who grew Panera into a 1,500-unit brand, urged attendees to “avoid the seduction of growth.”
“Growth is what seems to be the end for so many people, but growth is a byproduct,” Shaich said. “It’s the byproduct of having something of quality, an individual store that actually works.
“And if you stay focused on that, the growth will come as the outcome. If you get too enamored of growth for its own sake, you actually will never get the kind of growth that you want.”
Hickey of O’Charley’s said, “Speed kills, or it can.”
“If you look at the brands that have stood the test of time, they’re those that have been nurtured and held fast and pulled back on growth when there is not the funding,” Hickey said.
In addition, he told operators not to let early success and notoriety fuel expansion too quickly.
“It’s easy to become intoxicated by people telling you how beautiful you are,” he said.
Platt of The Yard House recommended that attendees know who their guests are, and to put systems in place to serve them.
Shaich noted an unexpected downside of growth: becoming too widespread and available.
