Blog

Welcome to the Surrender News/Blog.  Get the latest news, trends, tips and information to help you succeed and thrive in the workplace. For older blogs click the Archives or a Category.

  • How Multi-Unit Supervisors Create Better Results
    You can’t afford to have multi-unit supervisors just run the machine. That’s always true, but especially in volatile and uncertain times like these. Instead of running the machine, your multi-unit supervisors must be building a better one.  Two Different Outcomes For people who work in your company, do the alarms in their phones wake them … Continued
  • See How to Support Your Restaurant on 3 Strong Pillars
    To be a front-runner restaurant brand in 2026, your business needs to have three solid pillars: Learn how to be strong in all three on Sunday, 7/12 at 11 AM at the Profit Lab,at my upcoming Texas Restaurant Show session “The Experience Economy: Crafting Your Concept to Compete in 2026 and Beyond.” See me there in San … Continued
  • Using Your Spectacular Victories to Unlock Even More Success
    Let’s take a vacation from focusing on issues (aka “opportunities”) you might have at your restaurants and ask you, “What’s your latest victory?” Does anything come to mind quickly? Hopefully – after a day spent dealing with the competition, workforce issues, beef prices, renewing your insurance, and retaining and motivating your team members – you’re … Continued
  • Restaurants Make Money When You Spend on Your Amazing Vacation
    Today’s workforce operates in so much more balance than my generation. They don’t buy into the idea of delaying gratification and quality of life until some vague point in the future.   Admirable, for sure. But also, annoying when my generation thinks we need them to work the way we did. With summer beginning, how about we … Continued
  • Corral AI, Let Human Intelligence Direct the Herd
    The Economist recently cited two surveys about artificial intelligence. The upshot? The average person believes there’s a 20-22% chance they’ll lose their job in the next five years due to AI or automation. 20%! Thinking about being replaced by a machine feels uncomfortable and disheartening at best. Thankfully we’ve chosen a business where the human element is … Continued
  • The View from the Outside: Gaining Helpful New Perspectives
    Be honest with yourself: Are your restaurants continually getting better, or are they ever so slowly deteriorating? Do you have evidence for your answer? What are your guests saying? What do the numbers say? A longtime client brought me back after a 7 year absence. This company is a great business anyone would be proud … Continued
  • How to Get Unstuck and Dominate in Today’s Market
    It turns out that the barriers holding your results back aren’t unique to you. Sure, you are special, but not that special.  And today’s flattish restaurant market does not do the work for you. You have to do it yourself. Even though I write consistently about the four most important things to focus on in your restaurants now – … Continued
  • How to See What is Holding Your Company Back
    It can feel lonely at the top – especially because being there forces you to take a long, hard look at yourself every day. Every entrepreneurial independent restaurant company reflects its owner. Whatever the owner does well and values, the company does well and values. Whatever challenges an owner becomes problematic to the company.  The Human … Continued
  • Is Profit from a Credit Card Surcharge Right for You?
    My daughter’s pediatrician adds a surcharge to credit card payments. So does the insurance company – the one that accepted my auto premiums for years without one. Even a mom-and-pop upholstery service I used recently added a credit card surcharge. People have become accustomed to surcharges. And, once they start feeling better about restaurants too, … Continued
  • Three Ways Fantastic Bosses Make Restaurant GMs Great
    We spend more time developing general managers than we do developing their leaders. When companies extend that development focus to GMs’ bosses, great things – things that people thought would never happen – start to materialize. Like raising guest count in this flat market, enrolling employees and guests by launching an inspiring and authentic culture … Continued
  • How Top Operators Follow Through to Increase Results
    Some people turn out to be better at starting projects than finishing them. I see it all the time both as a student of personality types and advisor of restaurant companies. Initiatives begin and then get sidetracked when another shiny object – or simply the siren song of day-to-day restaurant operations – sucks the attention … Continued
  • How to Clarify the Best Way Forward for Your Restaurants
    Turns out that guiding a restaurant company today is different and more complicated than at any time I can remember. Today, simply following industry-wide practices won’t move a company to the next level; instead, your approach is connected to the level of success you currently create.   Last year I wrote to you about the three categories … Continued