Category Archives: food

September 19, 2014 · 8:12 am

Why Saving The Pots Is Bad Business

I’m not a fan of The Olive Garden which is our topic this Foodie Friday. I grew up eating (and cooking) Italian food and Olive Garden is pretty far from the cuisine I love. That said, I appreciate that it’s a lot easier for one to find authentic Italian food in New York and other big cities than it might be elsewhere in this great land of ours. The Olive Garden might have to do for those poor souls.

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(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A hedge fund recently produced a very lengthy report on Olive Garden’s parent company.  You can read the entire report here – it’s a fascinating look at how a company can lose its way.  I want to focus on one very specific aspect of the report: the food at Olive Garden.  The lessons we can take from it are very instructive for any business.

One main criticism the deck makes is this:

Olive Garden has seemingly lost its Italian heritage and  authenticity.  (It) lost ties to suppliers that offered authentic Italian ingredients and Italian wines at compelling price points. Now Olive Garden serves dishes that are astonishingly far from authentic Italian culture, such as burgers & fries, Spanish tapas, heavy cream sauces, more fried foods, stuffed cheeses, soggy pasta, and bland tomato sauce. Olive Garden has moved away from its authentic Italian roots and now offers what appears to be a low-end Italian-American experience.

The deck has photos of dishes as advertised and as they actually show up on the table.  The difference is amazing.  But it was one last complaint – along with the reasoning behind why the situation is the way it is that really got my attention:

According to Darden management, Darden decided to stop salting the water to get an extended warranty on their pots. Pasta is Olive Garden’s core dish and must be prepared properly.

Uh..duh!  Which is the lesson for any brand.  Diluting your brand causes consumer confusion.  Olive Garden for tapas or a burger?  I think not.  Saving the pots to reduce costs at the expense of the customer experience is lunacy.  Damaging the product – especially the signature product – is a big step down the road to brand destruction.

Many companies lose their core identity in the chase for revenues.  That’s bad.  Hurting the products that got you to this point is worse.  It’s not, as the report points out, just one instance. Breadsticks are another signature dish.  “The lower quality refined flour breadsticks served today are filled with more air and have less flavor (similar to hot dog buns).”  Can your brand survive while committing this sort of product suicide?

Without a brand identity, you’re done.  When any home cook knows more about making your product than you do, it’s time to pack it in.  That’s true if it’s pasta or clothing or web sites or anything else.  Agreed?

 

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Filed under Consulting, food, Huh?

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September 12, 2014 · 11:19 am

Pay In Advance

Foodie Friday at last! Here is a question for you: why is it that we pay for a meal in most restaurants after we are done and yet we pay at most quick service places before we actually even get the food? I’m guessing the immediate thought you had was that you sit and enjoy the meal in a restaurant, perhaps ordering as you go, while at a fast-food joint you’re eating and running. Is that really true though and what effect might changing that thinking have on both your experience as a customer and the restaurant’s business?

A meal at Claim Jumper which has its headquart...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Let’s give it some more thought. How often does your party order additional food (other than perhaps dessert and/or coffee) once the initial order is given? Do you usually order your appetizers alone or are you specifying your entrées at the same time? I’ll bet it’s the latter.  I’ll make an argument that changing that thinking might be better for both parties: the customer and the restaurant.  There’s a business point in here too.

First, the customer (always in this space!). By ordering the entire meal upfront and settling the bill even before the food arrives the customer is free to leave when they’re done.  How many times have you finished a meal and then had trouble getting the server’s attention?  Haven’t you ever given a server your credit card only to have them get another table’s food while you wait around?  Annoying, isn’t it?  And good luck if there is an error on the bill – that can take quite a while to fix while you’re ready to leave.

The tip isn’t an issue either.  In many other countries, service is stated upfront and tipping is discouraged.  Sure, we like to think of the size of the tip coinciding with the level of service but there is nothing that prevents you from putting some additional cash on the table as you leave if you feel the service charge isn’t enough.

Next, the restaurant.  Turning over tables is the business.  The longer people stay put the fewer meals you’re serving.  With the bill settled I’m wagering people will leave sooner.  In doing a little research on this I found that when upfront payment was tried it increased table turnover by over 80%.   Sounds like a win-win to me.  So why isn’t this the norm?

That’s the business point.  Too often we do things just because that’s how we (and in this case almost everyone else) do things.  Part of our job as businesspeople is to ask questions about our systems and processes and remember that made sense a year ago may not make any sense now.  Even if it does, maybe there is a better way that works both for your business and for your customers.

Make sense?

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Filed under food, Thinking Aloud

September 5, 2014 · 8:50 am

Scallion Pesto

Foodie Friday brings one of summer’s great dishes: pesto.

English: this is a picture of self made pesto ...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When you hear the word you think of a mixture of basil, pine nuts, cheese, and olive oil, and there is no better time of the year than late summer for basil. Of course, what I’ve just described is the traditional pesto alla Genovese, named after Genoa where it originated. The word itself comes from the local dialect’s word for “pound” which is what one must have done to make the sauce before the advent of blenders and food processors.

The term refers to a method, not an ingredient.  The French adopted it, called it pistou, and omitted the nuts since there aren’t a lot of pine trees around.  Cheese is optional as well.  Yet most people think of pesto in just one, very traditional way.  I had my mind semi-blown the other day when I made a batch of scallion pesto.  No basil, just a bunch of scallions thrown in the food processor with the other traditional ingredients.  While I was expecting a sharp hit of flavor, this was a mild, wonderful sauce I smeared on chicken and baked.  Since good scallions are available year round and basil can be expensive outside of summer, it’s a great alternative. Which is, of course, our business point today.

We make too many assumptions and don’t focus on alternatives.  When you shift pesto’s paradigm from specific sauce to method it opens up a world of possibilities.  Different greens, different oils, maybe different cheese.  We tend to get too focused on a specific recipe or outcome and forget that we have options that may produce better results, even if they are unfamiliar.

As business people we need to entertain every ingredient and see what happens.  Not being afraid to fail is a key to success.  I thought scallion pesto was a really weird and potentially bad idea.  It’s now going to be a staple.  What kind of pesto will you make?

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