Offering tips to the nation's top operators - Aug 25, 2008 Nation's Restaurant News
« July 2008 | Main | September 2008 »
August 2008
August 26, 2008
Members Helping Members - Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington piece by Concept Group USA
Check out our tips for local restaurant operators in the DC metro area:
Hotel Guests Throw in the Towel on the Environment - From Scientific American
A good read: Scientific American- Hotel Guests Throw in the Towel on the Environment
August 25, 2008 in Mind & Brain
Hotel Guests Throw in the Towel on the Environment
When it comes to using towels in hotels, it's herd mentality, not eco-principles, that leads patrons on a greener path. Christie Nicholson reports
[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]
When you last stayed in a hotel room, did you have the towels replaced after every shower?
Your behavior may have been influenced by the message the hotel used to
explain how having to wash more towels harms the environment.
A study to be published in the October Journal of Consumer Research found messages highlighting environmental impact are not as successful as those focusing on the actions of fellow guests.
They studied the effects of alternate cards placed in hotel rooms. Some
guests saw those that read, "Help Save the Environment," others, "Join
Your Fellow Guests in Helping to Save the Environment."
It was the latter, implying other guests were cooperating, that led to an increase in reusing towels—from 35 to 44 percent.
Researchers were able to further boost participation with a more
specific message: Seventy-five percent of guests in this room reused
their towels.
The authors note: more than three quarters of
Americans consider themselves environmentalists, but the effective
message reminded individuals to how the majority behaves, regardless of
principles.
At least this is progress—remember when hotels were only concerned with preventing guests from stealing towels?
- Christie Nicholson
© 1996-2008 Scientific American Inc. All Rights Reserved
August 22, 2008
Denis Sparagis and Tom Kelley stir it up in Restaurant Confidential
It's always fun to put out some rather common sense ideas just to guage responses. Check out our latest article in Restaurant Confidential It's All About Alliances, by Tom Kelley and Denis Sparagis, CGUSA in Restaurant Confidential .
What's the old saying, just like _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, everyone's got an opinion! We love it! Keep 'em comin!
Great daily business reads
If you are not yet signed up, check out the offerings from SMART BRIEF . They are great early morning reads with insights on general business leadership as well as industry-specific (restaurants, food, etc.) daily news summaries. They are free and a great way to keep up on trends. Happy reading.
August 20, 2008
Creating an alliance with the New Hampshire Restaurant and Lodging Association
Concept Group USA, led by new Senior Consultant Ben Williams, has met with and entered into a allied membership and partnership agreement, primarily rolling out RestaurantTuneUp to operators in the state.
We are also promoting the new offering with the Maine Restaurant Association.
Go get 'em Ben!
August 11, 2008
Concept Group USA adds to team and restaurant operator resources
Click here to see today's news:
Concept Group USA news on Yahoo Finance
Brought to you by Yahoo! Finance
August 07, 2008
Concept Group USA Managing Partner Tom Kelley interviewed for BusinessWeek
What Drucker Would Say About Mervyns
The department store is filing for bankruptcy because, in large part, it's been operating under a "theory of the business" that's no longer relevant
Mervyns portrayed itself as a victim of the crummy economy and a miserable retail environment last week as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. But in truth, a key part of the department store chain went bankrupt long ago. It's what Peter Drucker called the "theory of the business."
Every organization rests upon a set of such premises—fundamental notions about customers and competitors, about technology, about a company's own strengths and weaknesses. When an enterprise fails, Drucker explained, it is often because "the assumptions on which the organization has been built and is being run no longer fit reality."
As obvious as this may seem, it can be surprisingly hard to see. Many times, managers become preoccupied with how they are doing things. But what's equally important—maybe even more important—is what they are doing in the first place. As Drucker noted: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."
In a 1994 Harvard Business Review article, Drucker asserted that when a valid theory of the business is "clear, consistent, and focused," it's bound to be "extraordinarily powerful."
Naming the Mission
It all starts with mission. Drucker cited, for example, Sears Roebuck (SHLD), which "in the years during and following World War I defined its mission as being the informed buyer for the American family. A decade later, Marks and Spencer (MKS) in Britain defined its mission as being the change agent in British society by becoming the first classless retailer."
Mervyns, launched in San Lorenzo, Calif., in 1949, once had its own compelling vision of what it should be: a store that would provide high-quality products at a good value, filling a niche between Sears and Montgomery Ward at the lower end of the market and fancier, white-glove merchants at the upper end.
Through the 1950s and '60s, Mervyns prospered under this formula, even in the face of heavy competition from J.C. Penney and others. In 1971, the company went public, and it soon boasted dozens of stores bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Seven years later Dayton Hudson (now Target (TGT) acquired Mervyns and pushed it into Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Washington. In 1983, Mervyns opened its 100th store. (It has 177 now.)
But all the while, its basic theory of the business stood still; in fact, Mervyns continues to tout itself as "the prototype for the mid-range department store."
The trouble is, all around it, things changed. More and more players barged into the space that Mervyns had comfortably occupied—Kohl's, most prominently. Meanwhile, the whole idea of "mid-range" had itself become blurry, as those considered lower-tier began carrying trendier goods and designer labels. "There is no middle anymore," says retail consultant George Whalin. "It doesn't exist."
Under such challenging conditions, what should Mervyns' theory of the business have become?
"That Emotional Connection"
There are no easy answers. But Tom Kelley, a branding expert with Concept Group USA who briefly worked at Mervyns, expressed little doubt when I posed the question to him. He believes that each store should have accentuated its "homespun feel," deeply integrating itself into the community where it operated. He would have recruited store managers from local colleges, encouraged them to be active in civic affairs, and had them serve as a highly visible and welcoming presence for shoppers. "It's all about building that emotional connection with your customer," Kelley says.
In a sense, this is a page from the past. Being community-minded was originally a big part of Mervyns' culture. In essence, it had been baked into its theory of the business from the get-go. But here, too, Mervyns faltered—so much so that it lost its distinctive identity both inside the organization and among consumers. "Think of Mervyns and what image comes to mind?" asked a 1997 newspaper piece on the company. "If you draw a blank, you're not alone."
Drucker pointed out that it's not uncommon for a company to slip in this way, to take its theory of the business for granted as time passes. Management grows "less and less conscious of it," Drucker wrote. "Then the organization becomes sloppy. It begins to cut corners. It begins to pursue what is expedient rather than what is right. It stops thinking. It stops questioning. It remembers the answers but has forgotten the questions."
It would be unfair to suggest that Mervyns has done nothing to try to remedy its sagging fortunes over the years. It has highlighted its California roots, featured $1 to $5 in-store shops, and fiddled with its mix of name-brand versus private-label goods. But none of this amounted to what the company needed most: a thorough overhaul of its theory of the business. And, as Drucker cautioned, "patching never works."
A Desultory Nature
In 2004, Target sold Mervyns to a consortium of investment firms. Since then, Mervyns has had four chief executives—another sign of its desultory nature when what is called for is decisive action.
The current CEO, a highly regarded Levi Strauss veteran named John Goodman, has spoken in recent months of taking a tack similar to the one Kelley favors: In an era of faceless corporate behemoths, he has indicated that he'd like to turn Mervyns into a real "neighborhood department store" by catering to Latino customers, making strategic hires and investments in staff training, and directing sourcing and buying accordingly.
My fear is that it's too little, too late—that Mervyns didn't recognize soon enough that when a theory of the business becomes obsolete, it is, as Drucker put it, "a degenerative and, indeed, life-threatening disease." And that requires surgery, not Band-Aids.
Rick Wartzman is the director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University and an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
Concept Group USA adds seasoned operations pro to its national team
We are proud to announce that Ben Williams has joined Concept Group USA to increase our ability to service our current and future clients in the areas of hospitality and retail operational consulting.
Read more about Ben in the following biography:
June 2009
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 |
