How Top Restaurant Companies Make Current Strategy Succeed

Looking into 2022, the greatest thing top restaurant companies have going for them is that – after experiencing all those previously unimaginable things over the past two years – they have now figured out their strengths, identity, branding, and plans.

The future now looks much clearer to them, even though the headlines can be distracting and current events are like a roller coaster ride no one bought a ticket for.

You know you have a permanent to go/delivery/curbside channel; you operate in an inflationary period; you see no point on the horizon where there will not be a workforce shortage; you exist in a tech business; and you know what restaurants closed in your segment and trade areas and what the competitive landscape will look like in the future.

If you’ve been paying attention, you now have a freshly minted strategy and know your new destination – and are feeling solid, strong, and optimistic.

So turn back to the days of making smart investments in your corporate team.

For your strategy to succeed, infrastructure must support it.

Strategy Leads – It Doesn’t Play Catch-Up

I have heard it many times:

• “I’ll invest in my corporate team after other programs work.”
• “I’ll authorize that new marketing to be up and running after we see how revenue looks this  year.”
• “I’ll have that technology in place after profits from my new restaurant can pay for it.”

People who think they can play catch-up after their strategy succeeds jeopardize the success of that strategy.

Two Most Important Things to Do

1. Examine your strategy and see where updated and re-arranged corporate-level support will see that through. If you don’t have a strategy, stop reading and create one now!
2. Choose the right people, who may be either reassigned from their transitional pre-pandemic roles or new people altogether. The improvements they make will more than pay for their salaries. Don’t think that’s the case with your current people? You have chosen the wrong ones. Start again.

If your P&L had a line for missed opportunity, you would be amazed at the cost.

But, if you could run scenarios through a time machine – executing strategy without changing the players, or executing strategy with people you chose because you had that strategy in mind – I guarantee you the last scenario creates much higher odds of sending you where you want to go.

Over to you. How does your corporate team support your new post-restaurant-crisis portion of the pandemic strategy? What will you do to rebalance that and be more successful?