In the past 15 years, only one founder, just once, has missed a walkabout. Growth has two dimensions: revenues per restaurant and number of restaurants. Each managing partner keeps track of capacity and demand in his or her restaurant, just as each JVP stays alert to expansion possibilities in his or her region. In that sense, restaurant growth is a microcosm of chain growth. Take the matter of those long waits—annoying to some customers, to be sure, but an unmistakable sign to Outbackers of unmet demand.
Managing partners tried to cope with it by adding chairs to tables and tables to patios. A particularly entrepreneurial manager in Orlando realized that the physical limit on the number of seats we could fit in one restaurant was artificially stunting our growth. The fact is that in smaller markets you do most of your business for the week on Friday and Saturday nights. The big kitchens are needed to handle periods of peak demand.
As the Outback restaurants started to reach the saturation point in some markets, we began to see the wisdom of investing in newer restaurant themes that will take longer to plateau. The first thing we look for in an existing business, of course, is lines out the door. Why would we refrain from imposing on our newer concepts all the things that have worked so well at Outback?
OSI puts great store in the perks it gives its employees: profit sharing for hourly employees; health care premiums adjusted to wage levels; good working conditions; and a future. We do it because we subscribe to our special variant on the golden rule: Do unto others—in particular, your employees—as you would have them do unto others—namely, your customers and suppliers.
In the restaurant industry, concepts are easily copied but values only with difficulty because they have to be lived. How did we know these things when we started Outback?
You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access. Create an account to read 2 more. Organizational restructuring. A version of this article appeared in the September issue of Harvard Business Review. Read more on Organizational restructuring or related topics Motivating people , Employee retention , Organizational culture , Customer experience , Customer service , Growth strategy , Travel and tourism industry and North America.
Chris T. Sullivan chrissullivan outback. Lake Mead Blvd. The restaurant is located to the south and west of Sunset Station, on N. It opened in July 16, , replacing the previous Henderson Outback, at E.
Sunset Road, which had closed. According to an article in Vegas Inc. Join Riverfront Times Press Club. Steakhouse , Restaurants , Menu. It's all about generous portions, mate, at this Australian-themed chain. If Outback's colossal menu is any indication, Australians like meat—two-thirds of the items are beef and steak dishes, although a variety of chicken, ribs, seafood, and pasta entrees are also proffered.
Founded in , the popular steakhouse, one of the Bloomin' Brands, Inc. Outback's steaks, the centerpiece of its menu, also featured a New Orleans flavor, being seasoned with 18 herbs and spices. To help them cope with the enormous cuts of meat that the restaurant served, Outback gave its diners oversized flatware as well, including a steak knife that more closely resembled a saber. While American food ruled Outback's menu, the Australian theme reasserted itself at the bar, where each restaurant typically earned 17 percent of its revenues.
About three-fifths of the company's beer sales, and four-fifths of its wine sales, were generated by Australian brands, including Foster's, Rosemount, and Black Opal.
Much of the bar business came from customers waiting for tables--the restaurants were so popular that there was typically a minute wait for dinner. To meet this demand, Outback began to build larger restaurants in the early s, expanding from its prototype seat design to a seat design.
The company also switched from paging waiting customers to a quieter beeper system, which helped cut down on the tumult that came to characterize the Outback experience. To distinguish its restaurants, Outback developed a huge red neon sign that fronted its buildings.
In addition, the company signed on to sponsor the nationally televised college football Gator Bowl, which was played each year in Jacksonville, Florida. Outback also devised a 'No Rules' advertising campaign, focusing on the theme that diners could get what they wanted--good food and prompt, cheerful service--at Outback.
Customers were assured that they could order items not on the menu and that the kitchen would strive to fulfill their wishes.
One wish Outback did not set out to fulfill, however, was a diner's desire to eat there for lunch. Because a lunch shift complicated restaurant operations, and rarely brought in profits, the company opened only for dinner. This policy also allowed Outback to save on real estate for the restaurants it built, since locations near where people worked were more expensive than areas where people lived.
Rapid growth both in revenues and number of restaurants continued in the following year. Outback added 35 company-owned outlets and 26 new franchised restaurants in The chain passed the restaurant mark in March of that year, having expanded into 15 states.
Overall, Outback had reported percent annual growth over its first three years as a public company. Outback began to test a second restaurant concept in March , entering into a joint venture with a Houston restaurant group to develop Carrabba's Italian Grill restaurants, which featured Italian cuisine in a casual setting. The company added two new locations in Houston in , and laid plans to open six to eight more in Texas and Florida in the following year.
The Carrabba's concept was similar to the original Outback restaurant in many ways. Its average diner's check was somewhat higher, and alcohol made up nearly one quarter of sales, versus 17 percent at Outback. Overall, however, food costs at Carrabba's were lower. By opening this second front in the restaurant wars, Outback hoped to guarantee continued growth as the market for Outback steakhouses became saturated.
0コメント