Taking controlTaking control

Robin Lee Allen

As you read this, nearly 800 of your restaurant-industry peers will be in Dallas at our annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference, gathering intelligence on opportunities for growth in the current economic climate.

This year’s conference theme is “Where Do We Grow From Here?” — recognizing that operators, out of necessity, are approaching growth differently today than they did in the past. With financing still difficult to attain and the economy’s continuing unpredictability, the old model for top-line growth — namely, new-unit openings — is not as reliable or realistic as it was even five years ago.

In the same vein, as we brainstormed this issue’s special report amid political wrangling over the debt ceiling, the downgrading of the U.S. credit rating and the stock market’s continuing wild ride, we decided to leave the chaos of the outside world behind and shift our focus to those elements that growth-minded operators can control. While you can’t influence the financial markets, stubborn unemployment or the consumer’s psyche, you can control what happens in your lobby, dining room and kitchen.

In “Building from within: Controlling business inside your four walls,” we examine the factors within your power that have the greatest impact on your business. The report is divided into sections based on the points of guest contact, or touchpoints, over the course of the dining experience.

And as long as we were in a “taking control” sort of mode, we also decided to try to exert some influence on the powers that be in Washington, D.C. Prompted by Starbucks’ Howard Schultz and his entreaty to other chief executives to withhold campaign contributions until elected officials set politics aside and create a fiscally disciplined long-term debt and deficit plan, we asked restaurant leaders what advice they would give to lawmakers. That advice — and I think you’ll agree it’s good — can be found in the Business Intel section. I encourage you after reading it to join the conversation by logging on to NRN.com, where we highlight more advice and welcome yours. 

In Marketing we look at QR codes, which are shaping up to be innovative ways to integrate traditional marketing strategies with social media. And beginning on page 3 and continuing in the Food & Beverage section, we extol the virtues of bread as a point of differentiation and a way for restaurateurs to showcase their baking creativity. 

This issue also features our second-annual pay-for-performance study by HVS Executive Search. The study, which can be found in the Operations section, ranks chief executives according to whether or not they are over or underpaid based on HVS’ proprietary formula. The good news is that CEO pay is coming increasingly in line with company performance. 

On the topic of company performance, the Finance section offers the results of the most recent MillerPulse survey — and the results are surprising. The survey, created by Larry Miller, restaurant securities analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Atlanta, and presented exclusively by Nation’s Restaurant News, found August same-store sales up despite the month’s market gyrations and consumer-confidence tumble. Those results prompted Miller to write: “The August sales results support the view that there is more fear than fact about business trends.”

Interestingly, Miller’s statement recalls  former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s historic 1933 inaugural address to a nation deep in the throes of the Great Depression: “This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” 

That statement carries as much credence today as it did nearly 80 years ago. And while we can’t predict what will happen next, we should put aside our fears and attempt to control what we can with the goal of moving forward.

Contact Robin Lee Allen at [email protected].