Jeffrey Summers

Two Roads. One Choice. Which operator are you?
QFO: What is the first step that I should take before I build my own restaurant?
Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|QFO: Questions From Operators, From The Playbook, Perspective
Get the read you cannot get for yourself. Most operators who fail in the first year failed before they opened. Not because they lacked passion. Not because the concept was wrong. Because they built on assumptions that were never tested,...
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The Only Reason People Leave Jobs
Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|People, From The Playbook
It is not the bad boss. The bad boss is a symptom. Every reason cited for why cast members leave -- bad culture, poor leadership, inadequate pay, difficult Guests, broken processes, no work-life balance -- is a symptom of the...
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QFO: Big Menu Or Small Menu?
Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|QFO: Questions From Operators, From The Playbook, Product
The question is wrong. The right question is: what does this specific Guest need from this specific menu in this specific market for this operation to be profitable at the price point it requires? The answer to that question determines...
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Why Do Restaurants Fail?
Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|Perspective, From The Playbook
Every business school graduate has an answer. Undercapitalization. Poor location. Bad concept. Weak marketing. High food cost. Labor problems. The economy. The competition. The timing. Every one of those answers is a symptom. None of them is the disease. Restaurants...
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Best Practices Usually Aren’t
Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|Perspective, From The Playbook
By definition, best practices are what the crowd does well. They represent the aggregate experience of many operators across many contexts, distilled into recommendations that tend to work to varying degrees in most situations. Which means they are designed to...
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QFO: Frustration
Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|QFO: Questions From Operators, From The Playbook, Perspective
Q: "I get so frustrated with myself on a weekly if not daily basis . Like how can I set personal or work goals and then continue to make choices that prevent me from achieving those goals ??? Sometimes it's...
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QFO: How true is this statement? “Employee Engagement is something all organizations need, but it is tricky to tactically execute.”
Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|People, From The Playbook
Employee Engagement Is Not A Program The statement that employee engagement is "tricky to tactically execute" contains two errors in four words. It is not tricky. And the employer does not execute it. Engagement is intrinsic to the employee. It...
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Wrong Headed Thinking: Scheduling
Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|Perspective, From The Playbook, Performance
Every Shift Is The Only Shift That Guest Will See There is a scheduling philosophy in the restaurant industry that sounds like operational efficiency and produces operational failure. It goes like this: slower days are lower priority. Lower priority days...
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QFO: Social Media
Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|QFO: Questions From Operators, From The Playbook, Product
Q: Shouldn't you use social platforms like TripAdvisor to market your business? A: No. You shouldn’t use a consumer platform (which is what social media sites are) for commercial messaging. Social platforms are not a multi-purpose business tool and any...
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Jeffrey Summers by Jeffrey Summers|Adevertisement
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a...
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