Profit

The financial outcome of the first four fundamentals.

When a restaurant isn't producing the margin it should, the building starts to feel like the problem. Too much rent. Too many seats to fill. Too much square footage to heat, cool, staff, and maintain. The operator looks around and...

Your Current Business Design Will Eventually Fail — That Is Not A Prediction, It Is A Guarantee

by Jeffrey Summers|Profit

Three Harvard Business School professors wrote something in 1996 that most operators have never heard and need to read twice: "Outward value migration is inevitable. That is why we can guarantee that your current business design will eventually fail." Not...

Your Cast Is Not The Problem. Your System Is.

by Jeffrey Summers|People, Performance, Profit

The evidence has been clear for decades: most people problems in organizations are not people problems. They are system problems wearing people's faces. Employees do not generally act against their own organization's interests deliberately. They respond rationally to what they...

QFO: How long after opening will a restaurant begin turning a profit?

by Jeffrey Summers|Profit

Wrong question. The right question is whether the operation was designed to produce operating profit from Guest one. If it was, the answer is immediately. If it was not, the answer is never, at least not without redesigning the cost...

The Insanity of Losses

by Jeffrey Summers|Performance, Profit

There's a reason nearly 72% of all food service businesses go out of business within three years (fact not fiction). This level of thinking is part of the reason.

Restaurant Marketing: What Does An Empty Chair Really Cost?

by Jeffrey Summers|Profit

I've always talked about the costliest item in a restaurant being an empty chair. Now we take a little peek into what it actually costs you.