IN DECEMBER, JUICE DADDY UK COMBINED FORCES WITH MIKE BARRETT FILMS TO PRODUCE WHAT COULD QUITE POSSIBLY BE THE BEST "HOW TO ROLL A BURRITO VIDEO" EVER.

The above 1:20 teaser is a prelude to a series of short "Training Vignettes" which demonstrate the power of Video based learning in a retail/ hospitality environment. You can see the project homepage www.mexicanrestaurantlegend.com

• Increase pricing in the short term, boosting profits from existing customers less able/ not immediately willing to switch to purchasing a competitors product, but ultimately alienating and potentially loosing a percentage of the existing customer base.
• Reduce pricing in the short term (including discounting) in an effort to boost market share, but ultimately damaging the long term value of the brand.  Think Pizza Express…
• Decreasing capital expenditure (either on fit out or facility maintenance) boosting profitability but damaging long-term competitiveness in the market.
• Decreasing operating costs, to the extent product quality or service are compromised, but with little negative impact on sales in the immediate term.

By focusing on maximising shareholder value, an organization is forced to:

• Give priority to the medium and long term versus the short term
• Give priority to the establishment of a sustainable competitive position, rather then provisional profit
• Give priority to growing future cash flow.

"Your business is in trouble when your specialists are acting as generalists" #myopinion

When it comes to organizational structure, it is essential to define clear roles without overlapping responsibilities or skill sets. Who is in charge of Operations? Marketing? Finance?  Have somebody who is the final decision maker in each area (especially when starting up).

It doesn't work if you have two people who are fantastic chefs, and they argue all the time in the kitchen over the right recipe; while nobody is monitoring the cash flow. So the team needs to be balanced with clear roles for everyone. To restate this incredibly important detail, a person who's sourcing investment should not be getting that involved in the kitchen, and the people in the kitchen should not be getting too involved in the sourcing of investment.

In order to be a successful Leader you must learn to Flex Your Style #myopinion

What does it mean to flex ones style???

Your "Style" is synonymous with your "approach" in the way you interact with people.  It is the way you teach someone, the way you inspire someone or even the way you discipline someone.

Not everyone in the organization will be as: smart, talented, educated, experienced as you.  Not everyone in the organization will share your: background, sense of humour, personal values or taste in music.  If you only have one style of communication such as "Screaming and Yelling" or "Positive Reinforcement", you will inevitably alienate a percentage of the organization who do not respond to that style.

• To be successful you must develop multiple styles of communication to relate to people at all levels in the organization from a variety of different backgrounds.
• To be successful you must develop empathy, the ability to read your audience.
• To be successful you must develop flexibility with your approach in order to teach, inspire and discipline a broader scope of audience.

Cover Page of Report

Mexican Restaurant Juggernaut Wahaca ‘s well publicized takeaway Burrito concept called Burrito Mama introduced their Burritos to the world this past Friday at Uber-trendy Street Feast in the Dalston Yard. Being a Burrito Aficionado by trade, I was invited to come down and taste the goods before things opened up to the public.

There was an appropriate amount of chaos surrounding the Burrito Mama site with the crew putting the final touching on their service line and a handful of PR and marketing folks making sure everyone was comfortable with a cold beer and some well-chosen sound bites:

“The Burrito Mama brand will stand on it’s own and not be directly associated with Wahaca”

“We will be opening our first site in One New Change this October, hopefully to be followed by more” - In what I understand is the old Sumo Salad space. I wonder if they got a change of use permit and will be operating on an A3 lease (with primary cooking on site)?

“We perfected our recipes and processes using the Burrito Truck on the Southbank”

“We are 100% focused on better burritos, faster. Over the years, we have noticed that around 90% of customers order our burritos without making any bespoke tweaks, but we still go through the process of asking them every ingredient to put in, slowing things down. At Burrito Mama, we’re taking all our knowledge of what people love, making it taste extra special and then using that as our recommended choice for customers." Wahaca and Burrito Mama co-founder Thomasina Miers

They intend to operate with the “Order, Pit, Auction” Model. This means a customer will place their order and pay then be given a receipt with a name or a number. They will then wait in the pit or designated open space for their name or number to be called. There will be a Burrito Mama employee who will be expediting the finished orders into the hungry mob, usually by shouting their name/ number or auctioning their food. This is a common Model in the USA with Fast Casual Mexican brand Baja Fresh being the most well known. Examples here in the UK can be found by visiting new Burger Giants Shake Shack and Five Guys in Covent Garden. All of these brands cook their food to order so it will be interesting to see if Burrito Mama pre-make their Burritos or make each order fresh once placed.

As this was the first time Burrito Mama was offering it’s product to the public, we can assume they will be making some more tweaks along the way. It is likely the Burritos we sampled (which were the first two produced) will evolve over the coming weeks. Unfortunately, Burrito Mama does not yet occupy their Restaurant space so it would be challenging to address the quality of their people and Operations. We can only base our analysis off of what we observed and tasted this afternoon at this one off event.

To read the full analysis - Buy it now!

Middle Management: 30 - 50 people - These are the people running the business.  Directors of departments who moving forward initiatives, lead large teas of people and generally slaying dragons.  Less than 10% of all Middle Management will ever be considered for a Senior Management role.  These people stand to gain a Million or less if there is an exit event such as IPO or Accusation.

Managers: 300 - 500 people - These are the workhorses of the business.  General or Department Managers who are responsible for executing Middle Managements initiatives. These people deal with the bulk of the business's problems, customers and day to day activities.  It generally sucks to be a Manager and any =one in this position should be pushing and fighting to be promoted to the next level.    Less than 20% of all Managers will ever be considered for a Middle Management role. If you Middle Manager is one of the 90% who are going nowhere, it may be best to transfer out of that department into one with better growth potential. These people stand to gain 100K or less if there is an exit event.

Staff: 3,000 - 5,000 people - You have to start somewhere.   Basic, routine and repetitive tasks for a low hourly wage sum up this role.  If you are fortunate you will work for an excellent Manager who is going to grow in the organization.  This will mean opportunity for you.  If your manager is one of the 80% who are going nowhere, best to transfer out of that department or consider another job.   You will be very lucky if you receive any upside from an Exit Event.

Everyone who starts at Staff has has the a chance to break into Senior Management, most of them will not.

Know the company culture. All companies promote based on the same two criteria: Performance and Politics.  Philosophically I believe the correct combination for a successful culture is: 80% Performance and 20% Politics (or soft skills).  Some organisations run on a 50/50 breakdown, some 20/80... identify this.  Have a look at your performance reviews, bonus criteria or the types of people who get promoted.  What a company tells you and how a company operates can be two different things.  Defer to the compensation structure to understand how an organization values performance.

More tips for breaking into Management:

• Being good at Politics is extremely important to develop into Senior Management.  It is what sets you apart from the brilliant technicians.
• When there is a dispute, rise above the detail and work towards the solution.
• When at a meeting, ask everyone else's opinion.
• Do not get involved in the squabbles, rise above them.

Job Performance - Refers to being effective in tasks that make up one's job.  Every job (Chef, Server, Accountant, Director) can be defined by the tasks performed in that job. This component may be further refined into such factors as: adhering to procedures, oral communication, knife skills, recipe execution, etc.  This dimension of performance is clearly JOB orientated and refers to performing ones job effectively.

Organizational Performance - Refers to being a good organizational citizen and helping make the organization run smoothly by contributing in ways that go beyond ones particular job. This component may be further refined into such factors as: conscientious of others, not showing up hung over, not getting stressed out and being committed to the company.  This dimension of performance clearly goes beyond ones job and refers to being effective in contributing to the overall welfare of the ORGANIZATION.

Adaptive Performance - Refers to the ability and willingness to cope with uncertain, new and rapidly changing conditions on the job. This component may be further broken down into such factors as: adjusting to new equipment/ procedures, working under different managers, changing restaurant environments and continuously learning new skills.  An environment of change often requires the organization to work around projects rather than well-defined and stable jobs, which in turn requires workers who are sufficiently flexible to be effective in poorly defined roles.

This is not the black and white, task-focused work environment our parents lived in.  Gone are the days when an employee could say "That is not in my job description" or "you pay me to cook, not do dishes" or "why should I do the inventory, I do not get paid to do the inventory".  Drawing a line between your job and the organization is career suicide in todays work environment. Today the effective performer must make additional contributions that go beyond their job description.  Task Performance will always be relevant because that is the job we are hiring employees to do.  But the expectations now are for employees to go beyond their jobs, to help the organization in whatever ways present themselves and to adapt to rapidly changing work conditions.  To be a top performer in todays work environment, one must exhibit a wider range of skills than our parents had to.

Senior People walk into a Restaurant and Set the Tone #myopinion

You set the tone when you walk onto a shift. Be as consistent as a recipe's execution.

1 Kilo of Energy

1/2 Cup of Determination

1/4 Cup of Punctuality

2 Scoops of Sugar

Toss in a large mixing bowl and serve alongside Talent.

• Keeping the dish area organized is everybody’s responsibility
• Do not “Dump and Run”
• Pre-rinse everything
• Utensils should be soaking and collecting in the same spot
• Similar items stacked
• There should never be dishes in the sink unless they are being washed
• It is OK to let dishes build up a bit, hopefully never on the floor
• Leave not sharp objects in the dish area
• Wash as you go, stack if you must

AM Manager ______                    

Opening Check List          

• Complete Prep List for the Day                               
• Complete Food Safety Checklist                
• Complete & Email Weekly Sheet                
• Check Email                                                                       
• Count Safe/ Set Tills                                               
• Order Change                                             
• Complete Deployment Chart
•  Lead Service
• Handover

Notes:

The Managers Log should sit in the office and be a means of communication between the Management Team.  Every person on the management team should start their shift by reading it and end their shift by writing notes in it.  It works particularly well for the CM to communicate to the following days OM without having to disturb them with a phone call/ email.  If filled out correctly, the OM will have no reason to call the previous nights CM for clarification.   The less Managers are disturbing each other during their time off, the better quality time off they can enjoy. Managers enjoying their time off without non-critical communication is an attribute of a strong Team.

These are examples of things that should be recorded in the Manager Log:

• Any problem that has been successfully resolved for the following Manager
• Any non-critical problem that you did not resolve for the following Manager but want them to be aware of
• Anything to do with Transfers
• Marketing Activity
• Vendor Activity
• Non-critical information about people
• Notes from phone calls
• Weekly Manager Meeting Notes
• Something positive that will make the following Manager smile

When I visit sites, I always try to flip through their Manager Log to get a sense of the team.  I feel comfortable making the following assumptions:

• If they are using it to "Bitch" at each other than the team is not functioning well
• If only one person writes in it but nobody else writes in it than the team is not functioning well
• If the entire Management Team is using it, if tasks have been initialed, boxes checked, meeting minutes documents than that team is going places.

MANAGER_DIARY

Todays customers expect everything to be perfect, wonderful and tasty for their hard earned money… and they rightly should. #myopinion

Solving for what your customers value is so important to do in the start up days of the business. If you can figure out your customer early on, you can build the brand with them.  You may spend years trying to make the perfect burger, only to find out your customers love you for your home-made ketchup.  All you had to do was bottle it.

What we need to do is share some of the profit back with them or to better word it, run with higher operational costs.  We need to spend more money then we are comfortable with on Ingredients.  We need to pay more than Minimum Wage. Do not try to squeeze extra profit by cutting your Maintenance and Repair budget… nope your restaurants need to be refreshed every 5 years, the brand every 7.  We need to spend more than the guys down the street because today’s customer can tell the difference.

When you get it right and give your customers a Brand Experience that exceeds their cost of acquisition, your giving great value for money.  When we do this, the business prospers. When the business prospers, we grow in volume.  When volume grows, we get better pricing on controllables.  With better pricing, we can make more profit.  When we make more profit, we invest some of  it back into the Brand Experience to make it more valuable.  We keep the price of acquisition the same.  The business prospers...