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 EHC #549
 Insights for the Professionally Curious
 August 8, 2008 
Good Morning!

It's been a lovely month or so at home, almost enough time to get the office shoveled out. The home stand ends this weekend when I get back on the road again. It's off to the other Washington (DC) for the CHART summer conference, after which I travel to northern British Columbia to work with the staff and management at the Alpenhorn Bistro for a few days.

CHART is the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers, an amazing organization comprised of the training pros from hotels and mullti-unit restaurant companies all over North America. The companies may compete but the trainers don't so it is a terrific support network.

I joined CHART in 1986 when I was the Foodservice Director for the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Why? Because as an operator, I always felt that my only real job was to learn as much as I could and pass as much as possible along to my crew. What better resource to learn how to do that than CHART?

Speaking of learning and passing skills along to the crew ... how are you doing in that regard?

Bill Marvin
The Restaurant Doctor

The Best of Times
Grab the Opportunity of a Lifetime During the Lifetime of the Opportunity

 The world is in turmoil, the economy is depressed, the stock market is skittish, gas is still sky-high, blue chip companies are laying off thousands of workers and restaurants are dropping like flies. So what makes these the best of times? Precisely the things I just mentioned.

The only time you can really increase market share is when times are tough. That is when the timid operators curl up in a fetal position under their desks and hope they can hold out until all their problems go away. The only thing that will go away is their business ... and it will go to the operators who aggressively earn it.

What are you doing to actively expand your sources of revenue, reach out to new guests, develop new markets, bring in new diners (and give them such a great time that they will be loyal forever)? If you are not already doing it, then somebody is probably doing it to you!

Six Star Hospitality(tm)
Rethinking Restaurants

WHAT IF some of the best minds in the business came together to re-think how restaurants operate ... to imagine how they could be ... not waiting for change but becoming the catalyst for it?

WHAT IF we were determined to trigger a contagious resurgence of hospitality in the world by delivering the experience of heart-felt caring to every patron of every independent restaurant, every time?

WHAT IF we devised an elegantly simple system that provided the logic, methodology and support structure that would enable every independent restaurant to operate with effortless excellence?

WHAT IF this approach gave restaurant owners and staff a fulfilling sense of purpose and the joyful experience of enriching the lives of the people they serve?

WHAT IF this program was so irresistible and easily affordable that hospitality truly became the competitive point of difference in every independent restaurant in the world?

WHAT IF we said we were already figuring out how to do all these "impossible" things?

Would you think, "These people must be crazy!" ... or would you ask, "How can I be a part of this?"
The Six Star project is taking on a life of its own. I appreciate the nearly 240 operators who have helped the cause by responding to the general survey. Have I heard from you yet? If not, it's not too late to share your thoughts.

The program designers will need to invent ways to do things that have always seemed impossible ... so what would you like to see invented? The next few EHC surveys will take each element of the Six Star program and ask you to go WAY outside the box of what you think is possible.

Just complete this sentence: "Wouldn't it be cool if ______" Go crazy! Be unreasonable! We want to know the resources you wish you had at hand if your wildest dreams could come true. Then we'll see how close we can come to giving them to you.
The August Survey
Fiscal Fitness

The Internet opens up possibilities that were unthinkable only a few short years ago and Six Star will take full advantage of that.

A common complaint of independent operators is the amount of time they spend pushing numbers so we will automate as much of the grunt work as possible. This survey will give you an outline of what we already want to create ... and we need your ideas to help us see even more radical applications.

The numbers may not be the most exciting place to start, but the programming will probably be the hardest piece of Six Star to develop and we need to get started. So let's see how big a game you want us to play.

If you said you wanted to be part of the development process, this is the way to do it right now. I can't ask you to field test something until we have created it!

As usual, I will send copies of the survey results to everyone who participates. In the meantime, you can download copies of all past EHC surveys -- including the massive WOW Ideas collections.

Click here to add your thoughts to this month's survey.

Here's What You're Passing Up To Save 75 Cents!
In This Week's EHC Special Edition ...
  • How to Make Millions - the secret is finally revealed ... and it wasn't at all what I expected
  • On Being Unremarkable - a rant on the lessons to be learned from Bennigan's ... and why you could be next
  • What Did You Learn From Your Staff Today? - one operator's insight into how to help her staff learn the important lessons
  • Special Offers on Management Resources - while I am still in that business
Solve the problem of what to talk about in your next staff meeting. Upgrade to the EHC Special Edition and get it all!
Copyright ©2008 William Marvin. All rights reserved.

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