The Restaurant Doctor - Electronic House Call

ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - January 7, 2000

Happy New Year/Decade/Century/Millennium/whatever -- a perfect time to re-examine what you are doing and how you are doing it. The operable question is not "how can we do this better," but rather, "is this what we ought to be doing at all?"

POST Y2K EUPHORIA?
Many trend watchers are predicting that now that we have safely passed the concerns about a Y2K meltdown, people will breath a sigh of relief and get on with their lives again. Things are good, they have money and the purse strings may loosen up. What are you doing to encourage a celebratory mood in your operation?

MILLENNIUM MENUS
While we are on the subject, what do you think menus will look like in the next decade? While some are talking a "brave new world" theme, I think we will most likely go retro. Rather than futuristic menu offerings, I think we will see a craving for familiar, comfortable items that will give people re-assurance as they move into the future. I look for roast turkey, chicken pot pie, meat loaf and pot roast as items with real potential to engage the mood of the dining public, at least for the next few years.

DELEGATE YOUR READING
Unless something has changed radically out there, I suspect that every day you receive promotional offers, trade magazines, information from the restaurant association and other material that you do not have time to read, let alone study. I always put it in a reading pile that built up until I gavae up, tossed the whole thing and started again. If knowledge is power, you can lose a lot of power this way. Instead of taking on the reading as a personal project, toss these items to appropriate members of your staff. They will spend more time with the material than you will and can tell if there is something of value that you need to see.

For example, when I was at the Olympic Training Center, I got all my supervisors their own subscriptions to the various (free) trade magazines. I barely had time to skim the headlines, but they would take them home, read all the articles (and all the ads!) and highlight the items that we might be able to use. They broadened their knowledge of the industry and we did not miss any potential resource.

MANAGEMENT INSIGHT SERIES™
If you have not checked it out yet, go to my website and click on the logo for the Management Insight Series, my new audio series that will start in February. EHC readers who subscribe before January 15th will receive an extra bonus. Don't have time to check this out? Assign it to someone on your staff!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY . . . OF SORTS
I just realized that this is Issue #101 of the Electronic House Call. Amazing how time flies when you are having fun . . . and this really is fun for me. I hope you find it enjoyable as well. For what it is worth, you can find all the back issues of EHC on my website at www.restaurantdoctor.com. Could give you some good discussion topics for your staff and management meetings.

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